LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

RIVERSIDE 


The    Benefactress 


<jeLfi^ 


The    Benefactress 


BY  THE  AUTHOR  OF 

ELIZABETH   AND   HER  GERMAN   GARDEN 


'Man  bcbarf  bev  Seitung 
Hub  bev  tiuinnlidjcn  ^cgleitung. 

WlLHELM  BUSCH. 


Honlion 
MACMILLAN    AND    CO.,   Limited 

NEW    YORK   :    THE     MACMILl.AN    COMPANY 
I  90  I 

All  right i  reserved 


Copyright  in  the  United  States  igoi 


CHAPTER   I 

When  Anna  Estcourt  was  twenty -five,  and  had 
begun  to  wonder  whether  the  pleasure  extractable 
from  life  at  all  counterbalanced  the  bother  of  it,  a 
wonderful  thing  happened. 

She  was  an  exceedingly  pretty  girl,  who  ought 
to  have  been  enjoying  herself.  She  had  a  soft, 
irregular  face,  charming  eyes,  dimples,  a  pleasant 
laugh,  and  limbs  that  were  long  and  slender. 
Certainly  she  ought  to  have  been  enjoying  herself. 
Instead,  she  wasted  her  time  in  that  foolish  ponder- 
ing over  the  puzzles  of  existence,  over  those  un- 
answerable whys  and  wherefores,  which  is  as  a  rule 
restricted,  among  women,  to  the  elderly  and  plain. 
Many  and  various  are  the  motives  that  impel  a 
woman  so  to  ponder  ;  in  Anna's  case  the  motive  was 
nothing  more  exalted  than  the  perpetual  presence  of 
a  sister-in-law.  The  sister-in-law  was  rich — in  itself 
a  pleasing  circumstance  ;  but  the  sister-in-law  was 
also  frank,  and  her  husband  and  Anna  were  entirely 
dependent  on  her,  and  her  richness  and  her  frankness 
combined  urged  her  to  make  fatiguingly  frequent 
allusions  to  the  Estcourt  poverty.  Except  for  their 
bad  taste  her  husband  did  not  mind  these  allusions 
much,  for  he  considered  that  he  had  given  her  a  full 
IE  B 


2  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

equivalent  for  her  money  in  bestowing  his  name  on 
a  person  who  had  practically  none  :  he  was  Sir  Peter 
Estcourt  of  the  Devonshire  Estcourts,  and  she  was 
a  Dobbs  of  Birmingham.  Besides,  he  was  a  philo- 
sopher, and  philosophers  never  mind  anything.  But 
Anna  was  in  a  less  agreeable  situation.  She  was  not 
a  philosopher,  she  was  thin-skinned,  she  had  bestowed 
nothing  and  was  taking  everything,  and  she  was  of 
.  n  independent  nature  ;  and  an  independent  nature, 
where  there  is  no  money,  is  a  great  nuisance  to  its 
possessor. 

When  she  was  younger  and  more  high-flown  she 
sometimes  talked  of  sweeping  crossings  ;  but  her 
sister-in-law  Susie  would  not  hear  of  crossings,  and 
dressed  her  beautifully,  and  took  her  out,  and  made 
her  dance  and  dine  and  do  as  other  girls  did,  being 
of  opinion  that  a  rich  husband  of  good  position  was 
more  satisfactory  than  crossings,  and  far  more  hkely 
to  make  some  return  for  all  the  expenses  she  had 
had. 

At  eighteen  Anna  was  so  pretty  that  the  perfect 
husband  seemed  to  be  a  mere  question  of  days. 
What  could  the  most  desirable  of  men,  thought 
Susie  considering  her,  want  more  than  so  bewitching 
a  young  creature .''  But  he  did  not  come,  somehow, 
that  man  of  Susie's  dreams  ;  and  after  a  year  or  two, 
when  Anna  began  to  understand  what  all  this  dressing 
and  dancing  really  meant,  and  after  she  had  had  offers 
from  people  she  did  not  like,  and  had  herself  fallen 
in  love  with  a  youth  of  no  means  who  was  prudent 
enough  to  marry  somebody  else  with  money,  she 
shrank  back  and  grew  colder,  and  objected  more  and 
more  decidedly  to  Susie's  strenuous  private  matri- 
monial urgings,  and  sometimes  made  remarks  of  a 
cynical  nature  to  her  admirers,  who  took  fright  at 


I  THE  BENEFACTRESS  3 

such  symptoms  of  advancing  age,  and   fell  off  con- 
siderably in  numbers. 

It  was  at  this  period,  when  she  was  barely  twenty- 
two,  that  she  spoke  of  crossings.  Susie  had  seriously 
reproved  her  for  not  meeting  the  advances  of  an  old 
and  rich  and  single  person  with  more  enthusiasm, 
and  had  at  the  same  time  alluded  to  the  number  of 
pounds  she  had  spent  on  her  every  year  for  the  last 
three  years,  and  the  necessity  for  putting  an  end, 
by  marrying,  to  all  this  outlay  ;  and  instead  of  being 
sensible,  and  talking  things  over  quietly,  Anna  had 
poured  out  a  flood  of  foolish  sentiments  about  the 
misery  of  knowing  that  she  was  expected  to  be 
nice  to  every  man  with  money,  the  intolerableness 
of  the  life  she  was  leading,  and  the  superior  attrac- 
tions of  crossing-sweeping  as  a  means  of  earning  a 
livelihood. 

"  Why,  you  haven't  enough  money  for  the  broom," 
said  Susie  impatiently.  "  You  can't  sweep  without  a 
broom,  you  know.  I  wish  you  were  a  little  less 
silly,  Anna,  and  a  little  more  grateful.  Most  girls 
would  jump  at  the  splendid  opportunity  you've 
got  now  of  marrying,  and  taking  up  a  position  of 
your  own.  You  talk  a  great  deal  of  stufi^  about 
being  independent,  and  when  you  get  the  chance, 
and  I  do  all  I  can  to  help  you,  you  fly  into  a 
passion  and  want  to  sweep  a  crossing.  Really," 
added  Susie,  twitching  her  shoulder,  "  you  might 
remember  that  it  isn't  all  roses  for  me  either,  trying 
to  get  some  one  else's  daughter  married." 

"  Of  course  it  isn't  all  roses,"  said  Anna,  leaning 
against  the  mantelpiece  and  looking  down  at  her 
with  perplexed  eyebrows.  "  I  am  very  sorry  for 
you.  I  wish  you  weren't  so  anxious  to  get  rid  of 
me.     I  wish  I  could  do  something  to  help  you.     But 


4  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

you  know,  Susie,  you  haven't  taught  me  a  trade,  I 
can't  set  up  on  my  own  account  unless  you'll  give  me 
a  last  present  of  a  broom,  and  let  me  try  my  luck 
at  the  nearest  crossing.  The  one  at  the  end  of  the 
street  is  badly  kept.  What  do  you  think  if  I  started 
there  ?  "  What  answer  could  anyone  make  to  such 
folly  ? 

By  the  time  she  was  twenty-four,  nearly  all  the 
girls  who  had  come  out  when  she  did  were  married, 
and  she  felt  as  though  she  were  a  ghost  haunting  the 
ball-rooms  of  a  younger  generation.  Disliking  this 
feeling,  she  stiffened,  and  became  more  and  more 
unapproachable  ;  and  it  was  at  this  period  that  she 
invented  excuses  for  missing  most  of  the  functions 
to  which  she  was  invited,  and  began  to  affect  a  sim- 
plicity of  dress  and  hair  arrangement  that  was  severe. 
Susie's  exasperation  was  now  at  its  height.  "  I  don't 
know  why  you  should  be  bent  on  making  the  worst 
of  yourself,"  she  said  angrily,  when  Anna  absolutely 
refused  to  alter  her  hair. 

"  I'm  tired  of  being  frivolous,"  said  Anna.  "  Have 
you  an  idea  how  long  those  waves  took  to  do,^ 
And  you  know  how  Hilton  talks.  It  all  gets 
whisked  up  now  in  two  minutes,  and  I'm  spared  her 
conversation." 

"  But  you  are  quite  plain,"  cried  Susie.  "  You 
are  not  like  the  same  girl.  The  only  thing  your 
best  friend  could  say  about  you  now  is  that  you  look 
clean." 

"  Well,  I  like  to  look  clean,"  said  Anna,  and 
continued  to  go  about  the  world  with  hair  tucked 
neatly  behind  her  ears  ;  her  immediate  reward  being 
an  offer  from  a  clergyman  within  the  next  fortnight. 

Peter  Estcourt  was  even  more  surprised  than  his 
wife  that  Anna  had  not  made  a  good  match  years 


I  THE  BENEFACTRESS  5 

before.  Of  course  she  had  no  money,  but  she  was  a 
pretty  girl  of  good  family,  and  it  ought  to  be  easy 
enough  for  her  to  find  a  husband.  He  wished 
heartily  that  she  might  soon  be  happily  married  ; 
for  he  loved  her,  and  knew  that  she  and  Susie  could 
never,  with  their  best  endeavours,  be  great  friends. 
Besides,  every  woman  ought  to  have  a  home  of  her 
own,  and  a  husband  and  children.  Whenever  he 
thought  of  Anna,  he  thought  exactly  this  ;  and  when 
he  had  reached  the  proposition  at  the  end  he  felt  that 
he  could  do  no  more,  and  began  to  think  of  some- 
thing else. 

His  marriage  with  Susie,  a  person  of  whom  no 
one  had  ever  heard,  had  brought  out  and  developed 
stores  of  unsuspected  philosophy  in  him.  Before 
that  he  was  quite  poor,  and  very  merry  ;  but  he 
loved  Estcourt,  and  could  not  bear  to  see  it  falling 
into  ruin,  and  he  loved  his  small  sister,  who  was  then 
only  ten,  and  wished  to  give  her  a  decent  education, 
and  what  is  a  man  to  do  .''  There  happened  to  be 
no  rich  American  girls  about  at  that  time,  so  he 
married  Miss  Dobbs  of  Birmingham,  and  became  a 
philosopher. 

It  was  hard  on  Susie  that  he  should  become  a 
philosopher  at  her  expense.  She  did  not  like  philo- 
sophers. She  did  not  understand  their  silent  ways, 
and  their  evenness  of  temper.  After  she  had  done 
all  that  Peter  wanted  with  regard  to  the  place  in 
Devonshire,  and  had  provided  Anna  with  every 
luxury  in  the  shape  of  governesses,  and  presented 
her  husband  with  an  heir  to  the  retrieved  family 
fortunes,  she  thought  that  she  had  a  right  to  some 
enjoyment  too,  to  some  gratification  from  her  posi- 
tion, and  was  surprised  to  find  how  little  was  forth- 
coming.     Really   no   one   could   do  more   than   she 


6  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

had  done,  and  yet  nothing  was  done  for  her,  Peter 
fished,  and  read,  and  was  with  difficulty  removable 
from  Estcourt.  Anna  was,  of  course,  too  young  to 
be  grateful,  but  there  she  was,  taking  everything  as 
a  matter  of  course,  her  very  unconsciousness  an  irrita- 
tion. Susie  wanted  to  get  on  in  the  world,  and 
nobody  helped  her.  She  wanted  to  bury  the  Dobbs 
part  of  herself,  and  develop  the  Estcourt  part  ;  but 
the  Dobbs  part  was  natural,  and  the  Estcourt  super- 
ficial, and  the  Dobbses  were  one  and  all  singularly 
unattractive — a  race  of  eager,  restless,  wiry  little  men 
and  women,  anxious  to  get  as  much  as  they  could, 
and  keep  it  as  long  as  they  could,  a  family  succeeding 
in  gathering  a  good  deal  of  money  together  in  one 
place,  and  failing  entirely  in  the  art  of  making  friends. 
Susie  was  the  best  of  them,  and  had  been  the  pretty 
one  at  home  ;  yet  she  was  not  in  the  least  a  success 
in  London.  She  put  it  down  to  Peter's  indifference, 
to  his  slowness  in  introducing  her  to  his  friends.  It 
was  no  more  Peter's  fault  than  it  was  her  own.  It 
was  not  her  fault  that  she  was  not  pretty  —  there 
never  had  been  a  beautiful  Dobbs — and  it  was  not  her 
fault  that  she  was  so  unfortunately  frank,  and  never 
could  and  never  did  conceal  her  feverish  eagerness  to 
make  desirable  acquaintances,  and  to  get  into  desir- 
able sets.  Until  Anna  came  out  she  was  invited 
only  to  the  big  functions  to  which  the  whole  world 
went ;  and  the  hours  she  passed  at  them  were  not 
among  the  most  blissful  of  her  life.  The  people 
who  were  at  first  inclined  to  be  kind  to  her  for 
Peter's  sake,  dropped  off  when  they  found  how 
her  eagerness  to  attract  the  attention  of  some  one 
mightier  made  her  unable  to  fix  her  thoughts  on  the 
friendly  remarks  that  they  were  taking  pains  to  make. 
In  society  she  was  absent-minded,  fidgety,  obviously 


r  THE  BENEFACTRESS  7 

on  the  look-out  for  a  chance  of  drawing  the  biggest 
fish  into  her  little  net  ;  but,  wealthy  as  she  was,  she 
was  not  wealthy  enough  in  an  age  of  miUionaires, 
and  not  once  during  the  whole  of  her  career  was  a 
big  fish  simple  enough  to  be  caught. 

After  a  time  her  natural  shrewdness  and  common 
sense  made  her  perceive  that  her  one  claim  to  the 
scanty  attentions  she  did  receive  was  her  money. 
Her  money  had  bought  her  Peter,  and  a  pleasant 
future  for  her  children  ;  it  had  converted  a  Dobbs 
into  an  Estcourt  ;  it  had  given  her  everything  she 
had  that  was  worth  anything  at  all.  Once  she  had 
thoroughly  realised  this,  she  began  to  attach  a 
tremendous  importance  to  the  mere  possession  of 
money,  and  grew  very  stingy,  making  difficulties 
about  spending  that  grieved  Peter  greatly  ;  not  be- 
cause he  ever  wanted  her  money  now  that  Estcourt 
had  been  restored  to  its  old  splendour  and  set  going 
again  for  their  boy,  but  because  meanness  about 
money  in  a  woman  was  something  he  could  not 
comprehend — something  repulsive,  unfeminine,  con- 
trary to  her  nature  as  he  had  always  understood 
it.  He  left  off  making  the  least  suggestion 
about  Anna's  education  or  the  household  arrange- 
ments ;  everything  that  was  done  was  done  of 
Susie's  own  accord  ;  and  he  spent  more  and  more 
time  in  Devonshire,  and  grew  more  and  more 
philosophical,  and  when  he  did  talk  to  his  wife, 
restricted  his  conversation  to  the  language  of  abstract 
wisdom. 

Now  this  was  very  hard  on  Susie,  who  had  no 
appreciation  of  abstract  wisdom,  and  who  lived  as 
lonely  a  life  as  it  is  possible  to  imagine.  Peter  kept 
out  of  her  way.  Anna  was  subject  to  prolonged 
fits  of  chilly  silence.     Susie  used,  at  such  times,  to 


8  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

think  regretfully  of  the  cheerful  Dobbs  days,  of 
their  frank  and  congenial  vulgarity. 

When  Anna  was  eighteen,  Susie's  prospects 
brightened  for  a  time.  Doors  that  had  been  shut 
ever  since  she  married,  opened  before  her  on  her 
appearing  with  such  a  pretty  debutante  under  her  wing, 
and  she  could  enjoy  the  reflected  glory  of  Anna's 
little  triumphs.  And  then,  without  any  apparent 
reason,  Anna  had  altered  so  strangely,  and  had  dis- 
appointed everyone's  expectations  ;  never  encouraging 
the  right  man,  never  ready  to  do  as  she  was  told, 
exasperatingly  careless  on  all  matters  of  vital  im- 
portance, and  ending  by  showing  symptoms  of  freez- 
ing into  something  of  the  same  philosophical  state 
as  Peter.  Their  mother  had  been  German — a  lady- 
in-waiting  to  one  of  the  German  princesses  ;  and 
their  father  had  met  her  and  married  her  while  he 
was  secretary  at  the  English  Embassy  in  St.  Peters- 
burg. And  Susie,  who  had  heard  of  German 
philosophy  and  German  stolidity,  and  despised  them 
both  with  all  her  heart,  concluded  that  the  German 
strain  was  accountable  for  everything  about  Peter 
and  Anna  that  was  beyond  her  comprehension  ;  and 
sometimes,  when  Peter  was  more  than  usually  wise 
and  unapproachable,  would  call  him  Herr  Schopen- 
hauer— which  had  an  immediate  effect  of  producing 
a  silence  that  lasted  for  weeks  ;  for  not  only  did 
he  like  her  least  when  she  was  playful,  but  he  had, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  read  a  great  deal  of  Schopenhauer, 
and  was  uneasily  conscious  that  it  had  not  been  good 
for  him. 

While  Peter  fished,  and  meditated  on  the  vanity 
of  human  wishes  at  Estcourt,  Anna,  with  rare  ex- 
ceptions, was  wherever  Susie  was,  and  Susie  was 
wherever  it  was  fashionable  to  be.     For  a  week  or 


I  THE  BENEFACTRESS  9 

two  in  the  summer,  for  a  day  or  two  at  Easter,  they 
went  down  to  Devonshire  ;  and  Anna  might  wander 
about  the  old  house  and  grounds  as  she  chose,  and 
feel  how  much  better  she  had  loved  it  in  its  tumble- 
down state,  the  state  she  had  known  as  a  child, 
when  her  mother  lived  there  and  was  happy.  Every- 
thing was  aggressively  spruce  now,  indoors  and  out. 
Susie's  money  and  Susie's  taste  had  rubbed  off  all 
the  mellowness  and  all  the  romance.  Anna  was 
glad  to  leave  it  again,  and  be  taken  to  Marienbad, 
or  any  place  where  there  was  royalty,  for  Susie  loved 
royalty.  But  what  a  life  it  was,  going  round  year 
after  year  with  Susie  !  London,  Devonshire,  Marien- 
bad, Scotland,  London  again,  following  with  patient 
feet  wherever  the  unconscious  royalties  led,  meeting 
the  same  people,  listening  to  the  same  music,  talking 
the  same  talk,  eating  the  same  dinners  —  would 
no  one  ever  invent  anything  new  to  eat  ?  The 
inexpressible  boredom  of  riding  up  and  down  the 
Row  every  morning,  the  unutterable  hours  shopping 
and  trying  on  clothes,  the  weariness  of  all  the  new 
pictures,  and  all  the  concerts,  and  all  the  operas, 
which  seemed  to  grow  less  pleasing  every  year,  as 
her  eye  and  ear  grew  more  critical.  She  knew  at 
last  every  note  of  the  stock  operas  and  concerts,  and 
every  note  seemed  to  have  got  on  to  her  nerves. 

And  then  the  people  they  knew — the  everlasting 
sameness  of  them,  content  to  go  the  same  dull  round 
for  ever.  Driving  in  the  Park  with  Susie,  neither 
of  them  speaking  a  word,  she  used  to  watch  the  faces 
in  the  other  carriages,  nearly  all  faces  of  acquaintances, 
to  see  whether  any  of  them  looked  cheerful  ;  and  it 
was  the  rarest  thing  to  come  across  any  expression 
but  one  of  blankest  boredom.  Bored  and  cross, 
hardly  ever  speaking  to  the  person  with  them,  their 


lo  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

friends  drove  up  and  down  every  afternoon,  and  she 
and  Susie  did  the  same,  as  silent  and  as  bored  as  any 
of  them.  A  few  unusually  beautiful,  or  unusually 
witty,  or  unusually  young  persons  appeared  to  find 
life  pleasant  and  looked  happy,  but  they  avoided 
Susie.  Her  set  was  made  up  of  the  dull  and  plain  ; 
and  all  the  amusing  people,  and  all  the  interesting 
people,  turned  their  backs  with  one  accord  on  her 
and  it. 

These  were  the  circumstances  that  drove  Anna  to 
reflect  on  the  problems  of  life  every  time  she  was 
beyond  the  sound  of  Susie's  voice. 

She  passionately  resented  her  position  of  depend- 
ence on  Susie,  and  she  passionately  resented  the  fact 
that  the  only  way  to  get  out  of  it  was  to  marry. 
Every  time  she  had  an  offer,  she  first  of  all  refused 
it  with  an  energy  that  astonished  the  unhappy  suitor, 
and  then  spent  days  and  nights  of  agony  because  she 
had  refused  it,  and  because  Susie  wanted  her  to 
accept  it,  and  because  of  an  immense  pity  for  Susie 
that  had  taken  possession  of  her  heart.  How  could 
Peter  live  so  placidly  at  Susie's  expense,  and  treat  her 
with  such  a  complete  want  of  tenderness  .''  Anna's 
love  for  her  brother  diminished  considerably  directly 
she  began  to  understand  Susie's  life.  It  was  such  a 
pitiful  little  life  of  cringing,  and  pushing,  and  heroic- 
ally smiling  in  the  face  of  ill-treatment.  No  one 
cared  for  her  in  the  very  least.  She  had  hundreds 
of  acquaintances,  who  would  eat  her  dinners  and  go 
away  and  poke  fun  at  her,  but  not  a  single  friend. 
Her  husband  lived  on  her  and  hardly  spoke  to  her. 
Her  boy  at  Eton,  an  amazing  prig,  looked  down  on 
her.  Her  little  daughter  never  dreamed  of  obeying 
her.  Anna  herself  was  prevented  by  some  stubborn 
spirit   of  fastidiousness,  evidently  not  possessed   by 


I  THE  BENEFACTRESS  ii 

any  of  her  contemporaries,  from  doing  the  only 
thing  Susie  had  ever  really  wanted  her  to  do  — 
marrying,  and  getting  herself  out  of  the  way.  What 
if  Susie  were  a  vulgar  little  woman  of  no  education 
and  no  family  ?  That  did  not  make  it  any  the  more 
glorious  for  the  Estcourts  to  take  all  they  could  and 
ignore  her  existence.  It  was,  after  all,  Susie  who 
paid  the  bills.  Anna  pitied  her  from  the  bottom  of 
her  heart  ;  such  a  forlorn  little  woman,  taken  out  of 
her  proper  sphere,  and  left  to  shiver  all  alone,  without 
a  shred  of  love  to  cover  and  comfort  her. 

It  was  when  she  was  away  from  Susie  that  she 
felt  this.  When  she  was  with  her,  she  found  herself 
as  cold  and  quiet  and  contradictory  as  Peter.  She 
used,  whenever  she  got  the  chance,  to  go  to  after- 
noon service  at  St.  Paul's.  It  was  the  only  place 
and  time  in  which  all  the  bad  part  of  her  was  soothed 
into  quiet,  and  the  good  allowed  to  prevail  in  peace. 
The  privacy  of  the  great  place,  where  she  never 
met  any  one  she  knew,  the  beauty  of  the  music, 
the  stateliness  of  the  service  offered  every  day  in 
equal  perfection  to  any  poor  wretch  choosing  to 
turn  his  back  for  an  hour  on  the  perplexities  of 
life,  all  helped  to  hush  her  grievances  to  sleep  and 
fill  her  heart  with  tenderness  for  those  who  were 
not  happy,  and  for  those  who  did  not  know  they 
were  unhappy,  and  for  those  who  wasted  their  one 
precious  life  in  being  wretched  when  they  might 
have  been  happy.  How  little  it  would  need,  she 
thought  (for  she  was  young  and  imaginative),  to 
turn  most  people's  worries  and  sadness  into  joy. 
Such  a  little  difference  in  Susie's  ways  and  ideas 
would  make  them  all  so  happy  ;  such  a  little  change 
in  Peter's  habits  would  make  his  wife's  lite  radiant. 
But   they   all  lived    blindly   on,  each   day   a   day   of 


12  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

emptiness,  each  of  those  precious  days,  so  crowded 
with  opportunities,  and  possibiHties,  and  unheeded 
blessings,  and  presently  life  would  be  behind  them, 
and  their  chances  gone  for  ever. 

"  The  world  is  a  dreadful  place,  full  of  unhappy 
people,"  she  thought,  looking  out  on  to  the  world 
with  unhappy  eyes.  "  Each  one  by  himself,  with  no 
one  to  comfort  him.  Each  one  with  more  than  he 
can  bear,  and  no  one  to  help  him.  Oh,  if  I  could, 
I  would  help  and  comfort  every  one  that  is  sad,  or 
sick  at  heart,  or  sorry — oh,  if  I  could  !  " 

And  she  dreamed  of  all  that  she  would  do  if  she 

were  Susie — rich,  and  free  from  any  sort  of  interference 

— to  help  others,  less  fortunate,  to  be  happy  too.    But, 

since  she  was  the  very  reverse  of  rich  and  free,  she 

shook  off  these  dreams,  and  made  numbers  of  p-ood 

.  .  .     ^ 

resolutions   instead — resolutions    bearing    chiefly  on 

her  future  behaviour  towards  Susie.  And  she  would 
come  out  of  the  church  filled  with  the  sternest 
resolves  to  be  ever  afterwards  kind  and  loving  to 
her  ;  and  the  very  first  words  Susie  uttered  would 
either  irritate  her  into  speeches  that  made  her  sorry, 
or  freeze  her  back  into  her  ordinary  state  of  cold 
aloofness. 

If  Susie  had  had  an  idea  that  Anna  was  pitying 
her,  and  making  good  resolutions  of  which  she  was 
the  object  at  afternoon  services,  and  that  in  her  eyes 
she  had  come  to  be  merely  a  cross  which  must  with 
heroism  be  borne,  she  probably  would  have  been 
indignant.  Pitying  people  and  being  pitied  oneself 
are  two  very  different  things.  The  first  is  soothing 
and  sweet,  the  second  is  annoying,  or  even  madden- 
ing, according  to  the  temperament  of  the  patient. 
Susie,  however,  never  suspected  that  any  one  could 
be  sorry  for  her  ;    and  when,  after  a  party,  before 


I  THE  BENEFACTRESS  13 

they  went  to  bed,  Anna  would  put  her  arms  round 
her  and  give  her  a  disproportionately  tender  kiss,  she 
would  show  her  surprise  openly.  "Why,  what's  the 
matter?  "  she  would  ask.  "Another  mood,  Anna.**  " 
For  she  could  not  know  how  much  Anna  felt  the 
snubs  she  had  seen  her  receive.  How  should  she  ? 
She  was  so  used  to  them  that  she  hardly  noticed 
them  herself. 

It  was  when  Anna  was  twenty-five,  and  much 
vexed  in  body  by  efforts  to  be  and  to  do  as  Susie 
wished,  and  in  soul  by  those  unanswerable  questions 
as  to  the  why  and  wherefore  of  the  aimless,  useless 
existence  she  was  leading,  that  the  wonderful  thing 
happened  that  changed  her  whole  life. 


CHAPTER    II 

There  was  a  German  relation  of  Anna's,  her 
mother's  brother,  known  to  Susie  as  Uncle  Joachim. 
He  had  been  twice  to  England :  once  during  his 
sister's  life,  when  Anna  was  little,  and  Peter  was 
unmarried,  and  they  were  all  poor  and  happy  to- 
gether at  Estcourt  ;  and  once  after  Susie's  introduc- 
tion into  the  family,  just  at  that  period  when  Anna 
was  beginning  to  stiffen  and  put  her  hair  behind  her 
ears. 

Susie  knew  all  about  him,  having  inquired  with 
her  usual  frankness  on  first  hearing  of  his  existence 
whether  he  would  be  likely  to  leave  Anna  anything 
on  his  death  ;  and  upon  being  informed  that  he  had 
a  family  of  sons,  and  large  estates  and  little  money, 
looked  upon  it  as  a  great  hardship  to  be  obliged  to 
have  him  in  her  London  house.  She  objected  to  all 
Germans,  and  thought  this  particular  one  a  dreadful 
old  man,  and  never  wearied  of  making  humorous 
comments  on  his  clothes  and  the  oddness  of  his 
manners  at  meals.  She  was  vexed  that  he  should  be 
with  them  in  Hill  Street,  and  refused  to  give  dinners 
while  he  was  there.  She  also  asked  him  several  times 
if  he  would  not  enjoy  a  stay  at  Estcourt,  and  said 
that  the  country  was  now  at  its  best,  and  the  primroses 
were  in  full  beauty. 


CHAP.  II         THE  BENEFACTRESS  15 

"I  want  not  primroses,"  said  Uncle  Joachim, 
who  seldom  spoke  at  length  ;  "  1  live  in  the  country. 
I  will  now  see  London." 

So  he  went  about  diligently  to  all  the  museums 
and  picture-galleries,  sometimes  alone  and  sometimes 
with  Anna,  who  neglected  her  social  duties  more  than 
ever  in  order  to  be  with  him,  for  she  loved  him. 

They  talked  together  chiefly  in  German,  Uncle 
Joachim  carefully  correcting  her  mistakes  ;  and  while 
they  went  frugally  in  omnibuses  to  the  different 
sights,  and  ate  buns  in  confectioners'  shops  at  lunch- 
time,  and  walked  long  distances  where  no  omnibuses 
were  to  be  found — for  besides  having  a  great  fear  of 
hansoms  he  was  very  thrifty — he  drew  her  out,  say- 
ing little  himself,  and  in  a  very  short  time  knew 
almost  as  much  about  her  life  and  her  perplexities  as 
she  did. 

She  was  very  happy  during  his  visit,  and  told  her- 
self contentedly  that  blood,  after  all,  was  thicker  than 
water.  She  did  not  stop  to  consider  what  she  meant 
exactly  by  this,  but  she  had  a  vague  notion  that 
Susie  was  the  water.  She  felt  that  Uncle  Joachim 
understood  her  better  than  any  one  had  yet  done  ; 
and  was  it  not  natural  that  her  dear  mother's  brother 
should  ?  And  it  was  only  after  she  had  taken  him 
to  service  at  St.  Paul's  that  she  began  to  perceive  that 
there  might  perhaps  be  points  on  which  their  tastes 
differed.  Uncle  Joachim  had  remained  seated  while 
other  people  knelt  or  stood  ;  but  that  did  not  matter 
in  that  liberal  place,  where  nobody  notices  the  degree 
of  his  neighbour's  devoutness.  And  he  had  slept 
during  the  anthem,  one  of  those  unaccompanied 
anthems  that  are  sung  there  with  what  seem  of  a 
certainty  to  be  the  voices  of  angels.  And  on  coming 
out,  when  a  fugue  was  rolling  in  glorious  contusion 


i6  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

down  the  echoing  aisles,  and  Anna,  who  preferred 
her  fugues  confused,  felt  that  her  spirit  was  being 
caught  up  to  heaven,  he  had  looked  at  her  rapt  face 
and  wet  eyelashes,  and  patted  her  hand  very  kindly, 
and  said  encouragingly,  "In  my  youth  I  too 
cultivated  Bach,  Now  I  cultivate  pigs.  Pigs  are 
better." 

Anna's  mother  had  been  his  only  sister,  and  he 
had  come  over,  not,  as  he  told  Susie,  to  see  London, 
but  to  see  Susie  herself,  and  to  find  out  how  it  was 
that  Anna  had  reached  an  age  that  in  Germany  is  the 
age  of  old  maids  without  marrying.  By  the  time  he 
had  spent  two  evenings  in  Hill  Street  he  had  formed 
his  opinion  of  his  nephew  and  his  nephew's  wife,  and 
they  remained  fixed  until  his  death.  "  The  good 
Peter,"  he  said  suddenly  one  day  to  Anna  when  they 
were  wandering  together  in  the  maze  at  Hampton 
Court — for  he  faithfully  went  the  rounds  of  sight- 
seeing prescribed  by  Baedeker,  and  Anna  followed 
him  wherever  he  went — "the  good  Peter  is  but  a 
Qiuatschko-pfr 

"  A  duatschkopf?  "  echoed  Anna,  whose  acquaint- 
ance with  her  mother-tongue  did  not  extend  to  the 
byways  of  opprobrium.  "  What  in  the  world  is  a 
Q.uatschkopf?  " 

"A  duatsckopfis,  a  Duselfritz^'"  explained  Uncle 
Joachim,  "and  also  it  is  the  good  Peter." 

"  I  believe  you  are  calling  him  ugly  names,"  said 
Anna,  slipping  her  arm  through  his  ;  by  this  time,  if 
not  kindred  spirits,  they  were  the  best  of  friends. 

Uncle  Joachim  did  not  immediately  reply.  They 
had  come  to  the  open  space  in  the  middle  of  the 
maze,  and  he  sat  down  on  the  seat  to  recover  his 
breath,  and  to  wipe  his  forehead  ;  for  though  the 
wind  was  cold  the  sun  was  fierce.     "  Gott^  was  man 


II 


THE  BENEFACTRESS  17 


Alles  durchmacht  aiif  Reisen  /  "  he  sighed.  Then  he 
put  his  handkerchief  back  into  his  pocket,  looked 
up  at  Anna,  who  was  standing  in  front  of  him  leaning 
on  her  sunshade,  and  said,  "  A  duatschkopf  is  a 
foolish  fellow  who  marries  a  woman  like  that." 

*'  Oh,  poor  Susie  !  "  cried  Anna,  at  once  ready 
to  defend  her,  and  full  of  the  kindly  feeUngs  absence 
invariably  produced.  "Peter  did  a  very  sensible 
thing.     But  I  don't  think  Susie  did,  marrying  Peter." 

"  He  is  a  Q.uatschkopf,''  said  Uncle  Joachim,  not 
to  be  shaken  in  his  opinions,  "  and  the.  geborene  Dobbs 
is  a  vulgar  woman  who  is  not  rich  enough." 

"  Not  rich  enough  }  Why,  we  are  all  suffocated  by 
her  money.  We  never  hear  of  anything  else.  It 
would  be  dreadful  if  she  had  still  more." 

"  Not  rich  enough,"  persisted  Uncle  Joachim, 
pursing  up  his  lips  into  an  expression  of  great  dis- 
approval, and  shaking  his  head.  "Such  a  woman 
should  be  a  millionaire.  Not  of  marks,  but  of 
pounds  sterlings.  Short  of  that,  a  man  of  birth  does 
not  impose  her  as  a  mother  on  his  children.  Peter 
has  done  it.     He  is  a  duatschkop/y 

"  It  is  a  great  mercy  that  she  isn't  a  millionaire," 
said  Anna,  appalled  by  the  mere  thought.  "  Things 
would  be  just  the  same,  except  that  there  would  be 
all  that  money  more  to  hear  about.  I  hate  the  very 
name  of  money." 

"Nonsense.      Money  is  very  good." 

"  But  not  somebody  else's." 

"That  is  true,"  said  Uncle  Joachim  approvingly. 
*'  One's  own  is  the  only  money  that  is  truly  pleasant." 
Then  he  added  suddenly,  "Tell  me,  how  comes  it 
that  you  are  not  married .?  " 

Anna  frowned.  "  Now  you  are  growing  like 
Susie,"  she  said. 

c 


1 8  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

"  Ach — she  asks  you  that  often  ?  " 

"  Yes — no,  not  quite  like  that.  She  says  she 
knows  why  I  am  not  married." 

"  And  what  knows  she  ?  " 

"  She  says  that  I  frighten  everybody  away,"  said 
Anna,  digging  the  point  of  her  sunshade  into  the 
ground.  Then  she  looked  at  Uncle  Joachim,  and 
laughed. 

"  What  .^ "  he  said,  incredulously.  This  pretty 
creature  standing  before  him,  so  soft  and  young — for 
that  she  was  twenty-four  was  hardly  credible — could 
not  by  any  possibility  be  anything  but  lovable, 

"  She  says  that  I  am  disagreeable  to  people — that 
I  look  cross — that  I  don't  encourage  them  enough. 
Now  isn't  it  simply  terrible  to  be  expected  to 
encourage  any  wretched  man  who  has  money  }  I 
don't  want  anybody  to  marry  me.  I  don't  want  to 
buy  my  independence  that  way.  Besides,  it  isn't 
really  independence." 

"  For  a  woman  it  is  the  one  life,"  said  Uncle 
Joachim  with  great  decision.  "  Talk  not  to  me  of 
independence.  Such  words  are  not  for  the  lips  of 
girls.  It  is  a  woman's  pride  to  lean  on  a  good 
husband.  It  is  her  happiness  to  be  shielded  and  pro- 
tected by  him.  Outside  the  narrow  circle  of  her 
home,  for  her  happiness  is  not.  The  woman  who 
never  marries  has  missed  all  things." 

"  I  don't  believe  it,"  said  Anna. 

"It  is  nevertheless  true." 

"  Look  at  Susie — is  she  so  happy  ?  " 

"  I  said  a  good  husband  ;  not  a  Duselfritz."" 

"  And  as  for  narrow  circles,  why,  how  happy,  now 
gloriously  happy  I  could  be  outside  them,  if  onlv  I 
were  independent !  " 

"Independent  —  independent,"    repeated     Uncle 


ir  THE  BENEFACTRESS  19 

Joachim  testily,  "always  this  same  foolish  word. 
What  hast  thou  in  thy  head,  child,  thy  pretty 
woman's  head,  made,  if  ever  head  was,  to  lean  on  a 
good  man's  shoulder?  " 

*<  Oh — good  men's  shoulders,"  said  Anna,  shrug- 
ging her  own,  "  I  don't  want  to  lean  on  anybody's 
shoulder.  I  want  to  hold  my  head  up  straight,  all 
by  itself.  Do  you  then  admire  limp  women,  dear 
uncle,  whose  heads  roll  about  all  loose  till  a  good 
man  comes  along  and  props  them  up  .? " 

"  These  are  English  ideas.  I  like  them  not," 
said  Uncle  Joachim,  looking  stony. 

Anna  sat  down  on  the  seat  by  his  side,  and  laid 
her  cheek  for  a  moment  against  his  sleeve.  "  This  is 
the  only  good  man's  shoulder  it  will  ever  lean  on," 
she  said.  "  If  I  were  a  preacher,  do  you  know  what 
I  would  preach.''  " 

"Thou  art  not,  and  never  wilt  be,  a  preacher." 

"  But  if  I  were  ?  Do  you  know  what  I  would 
preach  ^    Early  and  late  ?     In  season  and  out  of  it  .f* " 

"  Much  nonsense,  I  doubt  not." 

"  I  would  preach  independence.  Only  that. 
Always  that.  They  would  be  sermons  for  women 
only  ;  and  they  would  be  warnings  against  props." 

She  sat  up  and  looked  at  him  out  of  the  corners 
of  her  eyes,  but  he  continued  to  stare  stonily  into 
space. 

"  I  would  thump  the  cushions,  and  cry  out,  '  Be 
independent,  independent,  independent  !  Don't  talk 
so  much,  and  do  more.  Go  your  own  way,  and  let 
your  neighbour  go  his.  Don't  meddle  with  other 
people  when  you  have  all  your  own  work  cut  out 
for  you  being  good  yourself.  Shake  off  all  the 
props 

"Anna,  thou  art  talking  folly." 


20  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

"' — shake  them  off,  the  props  tradition  and 
authority  offer  you,  and  go  alone — crawl,  stumble, 
stagger,  but  go  alone.  You  won't  learn  to  walk 
without  tumbles,  and  knocks,  and  bruises,  but  you'll 
never  learn  to  walk  at  all  so  long  as  there  are  props.' 
Oh,"  she  said  fervently,  casting  up  her  eyes,  "  there 
is  nothing,  nothing  like  getting  rid  of  one's  props  !  " 

"  I  never  yet,"  observed  Uncle  Joachim,  in  his 
turn  casting  up  his  eyes,  "saw  a  girl  who  so  greatly 
needs  the  guidance  of  a  good  man.  Hast  thou  never 
loved,  then  ? "  he  added,  turning  on  her  suddenly. 

"  Yes,"  replied  Anna  promptly.  If  Uncle  Joachim 
chose  to  ask  such  direct  questions  she  would  give  him 
straight  answers. 

"But .?" 

"  He  went  away  and  married  somebody  else.  I 
had  no  money,  and  she  had  a  great  deal.  So  you  see 
he  was  a  very  sensible  young  man."  And  she 
laughed,  for  she  had  long  ago  ceased  to  be  anything 
but  amused  by  the  remembrance  of  her  one  excursion 
into  the  rocky  regions  of  love. 

"  That,"  said  Uncle  Joachim,  "  was  not  true  love." 

"Oh,  but  it  was." 

"  Nay.     One  does  not  laugh  at  love." 

"  It  was  all  I  had,  anyhow.  There  isn't  any  more 
left.  It  was  very  bad  while  it  lasted,  and  it  took  at 
least  two  years  to  get  over  it.  What  things  I  did  to 
please  that  young  man  and  appear  lovely  in  his  eyes ! 
The  hours  it  took  to  dress,  and  get  my  hair  done 
just  right,  I  endured  tortures  if  I  didn't  look  as 
beautiful  as  I  thought  I  could  look,  and  was  always 
giving  my  poor  maid  notice.  And  plots — the  way  I 
plotted  to  get  taken  to  the  places  where  he  would  be  ! 
I  never  was  so  artful  before  or  since.  Poor  Susie  was 
quite  helpless.      It  is  a  mercy  it  all  ended  as  it  did." 


II 


THE  BENEFACTRESS  21 


"That,"  repeated  Uncle  Joachim,  "was  not  true 
love. 

"Yes,  it  was." 

"  No,  my  child." 

"  Yes,  my  uncle.  I  laugh  now,  but  it  was  very 
dreadful  at  the  time." 

"Thou  art  but  a  goose,"  he  said,  shrugging  his 
shoulders  ;  but  immediately  patted  her  hand  lest  her 
feelings  should  have  been  hurt.  And,  declining 
further  argument,  he  demanded  to  be  taken  to  the 
Great  Vine. 

It  was  in  this  fashion,  Anna  talking,  and  Uncle 
Joachim  making  brief  comments,  that  he  came  to 
know  her  as  thoroughly  as  though  he  had  lived  with 
her  all  his  life. 

Soon  after  the  excursion  to  Hampton  Court  a 
letter  came  that  hurried  his  departure,  to  Susie's  ill- 
concealed  relief. 

"My  swines  are  ill,"  he  informed  her,  greatly 
agitated,  his  fragile  English  going  altogether  to 
pieces  in  his  perturbation  ;  "  my  inspector  writes 
they  perpetually  die.  God  keep  thee,  Anna,"  and 
he  embraced  her  very  tenderly,  and  bending  hastily 
over  Susie's  hand  muttered  some  conventionalities, 
and  then  disappeared  into  his  four-wheeler  and  out  of 
their  lives. 

They  never  saw  him  again. 

"  My  swines  are  ill,"  mimicked  Susie,  when  Anna, 
feeling  that  she  had  lost  her  one  friend,  came  slowly 
back  into  the  room,  "  my  swines  perpetually  die " 

Anna  was  obliged  to  go  and  pray  very  hard  at 
St.  Paul's  before  she  could  forgive  her. 


CHAPTER  III 

The  old  man  died  at  Christmas,  and  in  the  following 
March,  when  Anna  was  going  about  more  sad  and 
listless  than  ever,  the  news  came  that,  though  his  in- 
herited estates  had  gone  to  his  sons,  he  had  bought  a 
little  place  some  years  before  with  the  intention  of 
retiring  to  it  in  his  extreme  old  age,  and  this  little 
place  he  had  left  to  his  dear  and  only  niece  Anna. 

She  was  alone  when  the  letters  bringing  the  news 
arrived,  sitting  in  the  drawing-room  with  a  book  in 
her  hands  at  which  she  did  not  look,  feeling  utterly 
downcast,  indifferent,  too  hopeless  to  want  anything 
or  mind  anything,  accepting  her  destiny  of  years  of 
days  like  this,  with  herself  going  through  them 
lonely,  useless,  and  always  older,  and  telling  herself 
that  she  did  not  after  all  care.  "  What  does  it 
matter,  so  long  as  I  have  a  comfortable  bed,  and  fires 
when  I  am  cold,  and  meals  when  I  am  hungry  ? "  she 
thought.  "  Not  to  have  those  is  the  only  real  misery. 
All  the  rest  is  purest  fancy.  What  right  have  I  to 
be  happier  than  other  people  ?  If  they  are  contented 
by  such  things  I  can  be  contented  too.  And  what 
does  a  useless  being  like  me  deserve,  I  should  like  to 
know  ^  It  was  detestably  ungrateful  of  me  to  have 
been  unhappy  all  this  time." 

She  got  up  aimlessly,  and  looked  out  of  the  window 


CHAP.  Ill        THE  BENEFACTRESS  23 

into  the  sunny  street,  where  the  dust  was  racing  by 
on  the  gusty  March  wind,  and  the  women  selling 
daffodils  at  the  corner  were  more  battered  and  blown 
about  and  red- eyed  than  ever.  She  had  often,  in 
those  moments  when  her  whole  body  tingled  with  a 
wild  longing  to  be  up  and  doing  and  justifying  her 
existence  before  it  was  too  late,  envied  these  poor 
women,  because  they  worked.  She  wondered  vaguely 
now  at  her  folly.  "It  is  much  better  to  be  comfort- 
able," she  thought,  going  back  to  the  fire  as  aimlessly 
as  she  had  gone  to  the  window,  "  and  it  is  sheer 
idiocy  quarrelling  with  a  life  that  other  people  would 
think  quite  tolerable." 

Then  the  door  opened,  and  the  letters  were 
brought  in — the  wonderful  letters  that  struck  the 
whole  world  into  radiance — lying  together  with  bills 
and  ordinary  notes  on  a  salver,  carried  by  an  indif- 
ferent servant,  handed  to  her  as  though  they  were 
things  of  nought — the  wonderful  letters  that  changed 
her  life. 

At  first  she  did  not  understand  what  it  was  that 
they  meant,  and  pored  over  the  cramped  German 
writing,  reading  the  long  sentences  over  and  over 
again,  till  something  suddenly  seemed  to  clutch  at 
her  heart.  Was  this  possible  .''  Was  this  actual 
truth.?  Was  Uncle  Joachim,  who  had  so  much 
objected  to  her  longing  for  independence,  giving  it  to 
her  with  both  hands,  and  every  blessing  along  with 
it .''  She  read  them  through  again,  very  carefully, 
holding  them  with  shaking  hands.  Yes,  it  was  true. 
She  began  to  cry,  sobbing  over  them  for  very  love 
and  tenderness,  her  whole  being  melted  into  gratitude 
and  humbleness,  awestruck  by  a  sense  of  how  little 
she  had  deserved  it,  dazzled  by  the  thousand  lovely 
colours  life,  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  had  taken  on. 


24  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

There  were  two  letters — one  from  Uncle  Joachim's 
lawyer,  and  one  from  Uncle  Joachim  himself,  written 
soon  after  his  return  from  England,  with  directions 
on  the  envelope  that  it  was  to  be  sent  to  Anna  after 
his  death. 

Uncle  Joachim  was  not  a  man  to  express  sentiment 
otherwise  than  by  patting  those  he  loved  affectionately 
on  the  back,  and  the  letter  over  which  Anna  hung 
with  such  tender  gratitude,  and  such  an  extravagance 
of  humility,  was  a  mere  bald  statement  of  facts. 
Since  Anna,  with  a  perversity  that  he  entirely  dis- 
approved, refused  to  marry,  and  appeared  to  be 
possessed  of  the  obstinacy  that  had  always  been  a 
peculiarity  of  her  German  forefathers,  and  which  was 
well  enough  in  a  man,  but  undesirable  in  a  woman, 
whose  calling  it  was  to  be  gentle  and  yielding  {sanft 
und  nachgiebig)  and  convinced,  from  what  he  had 
seen  during  his  visit  to  London,  that  she  could  never 
by  any  possibility  be  happy  with  her  brother  and 
sister-in-law,  and  moreover  considering  that  it  was 
beneath  the  dignity  of  his  sister's  daughter,  a  young 
lady  of  good  family,  for  ever  to  roll  herself  in  the 
feathers  with  which  the  middle  -  class  goose  born 
Dobbs  had  furnished  Peter's  otherwise  defective  nest, 
he  had  decided  to  make  her  independent  altogether 
of  them,  numerous  though  his  own  sons  were,  and 
angry  as  they  no  doubt  would  be,  by  bestowing  on 
her  absolutely  after  his  death  the  only  property  that 
he  could  leave  to  whomsoever  he  chose,  a  small 
estate  near  Stralsund,  where  he  hoped  to  pass  his  last 
years.  It  was  in  a  flourishing  condition,  easy  to 
manage,  bringing  in  a  yearly  average  of  forty  thousand 
marks,  and  with  an  experienced  inspector  whom  he 
earnestly  recommended  her  to  keep.  He  trusted  his 
dear  Anna  would  go  and  live  there,  and  keep  it  up 


Ill  THE  BENEFACTRESS  25 

to  its  present  state  of  excellence,  and  would  finally 
marry  a  good  German  gentleman,  of  whom  there 
were  many,  and  return  in  this  way  altogether  to  the 
country  of  her  forefathers.  The  estate  was  not  so 
far  from  Stralsund  as  to  make  it  impossible  for  her  to 
drive  there  when  she  wished  to  indulge  any  feminine 
desire  she  might  have  to  trim  herself  {sich  putzen)^ 
and  he  recommended  her  to  begin  a  new  life,  settling 
there  with  some  grave  and  sober  female  advanced  in 
years  as  companion  and  protrectress,  until  such  time 
as  she  should,  by  marriage,  pass  into  the  care  of  that 
natural  protector,  her  husband. 

Then  followed  a  short  exposition  of  his  views  on 
women,  especially  those  women  who  go  to  parties 
all  their  lives  and  talk  Klatsch  ;  a  spirited  compar- 
ing of  such  women  with  those  whose  interests  keep 
them  busy  in  their  own  homes  ;  and  a  final  exhorta- 
tion to  Anna  to  seize  this  opportunity  of  choosing 
the  better  life,  which  was  always,  he  said,  a  life  of 
simplicity,  frugality,  and  hard  work. 

Anna  wept  and  laughed  together  over  this  letter 
—  the  tenderest  laughter  and  the  happiest  tears. 
It  seemed  by  turns  the  wildest  improbability  that 
she  should  be  well  ofF,  and  the  most  natural  thing  in 
the  world.  Susie  was  out.  Never  had  her  absence 
been  terrible  before.  Anna  could  hardly  bear  the 
waiting.  She  walked  up  and  down  the  room,  for 
sitting  still  was  impossible,  holding  the  precious 
letters  tight  in  her  little  cold  hands,  her  cheeks 
burning,  her  eyes  sparkling,  in  an  agony  of  im- 
patience and  anxiety  lest  something  should  have 
happened  to  delay  Susie  at  this  supreme  moment. 
At  the  window  end  of  the  room  she  stopped  each 
time  she  reached  it  and  looked  eagerly  up  and  down 
the  street,  the  flower-women,  and  the  blessedness  of 


26  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

selling  daffodils,  having  within  an  hour  become  pro- 
foundly indifferent  to  her.  At  the  other  end  of  the 
room,  where  a  bureau  stood,  she  came  to  a  standstill 
too,  and  snatching  up  a  pen  began  a  letter  to  Peter 
in  Devonshire  ;  but,  hearing  wheels,  threw  it  down 
and  flew  to  the  window  again.  It  was  not  Susie's 
carriage,  and  she  went  back  to  the  letter  and  wrote 
another  line  ;  then  again  to  the  window  ;  then  again 
to  the  letter  ;  and  it  was  the  letter's  turn  as  Susie, 
fagged  from  a  round  of  calls,  came  in. 

Susie's  afternoon  had  not  been  a  success.  She 
had  made  advances  to  a  woman  of  enviably  high 
position  v/ith  the  intrepidity  that  characterised  all  her 
social  movements,  and  she  had  been  snubbed  for  her 
pains  with  more  than  usual  rudeness.  She  had  had, 
besides,  several  minor  annoyances.  And  to  come  in 
worn  out,  and  have  your  sister-in-law,  who  would 
hardly  speak  to  you  at  luncheon,  fall  on  your  neck 
and  begin  violently  to  kiss  you,  is  really  a  little  hard 
on  a  woman  who  is  already  cross. 

"  Now  what  in  the  name  of  fortune  is  the  matter 
now.''  "  gasped  Susie,  breathlessly  disengaging  herself. 

"  Oh,  Susie  !  oh,  Susie  !  "  cried  Anna  incoherently, 
"  what  ages  you  have  been  away — and  the  letters 
came  directly  you  had  gone — and  I've  been  watching 
for  you  ever  since,  and  was  so  dreadfully  afraid  some- 
thing had  happened " 

"But  what  are  you  talking  about,  Anna.''"  in- 
terrupted Susie  irritably.  It  was  late,  and  she  wanted 
to  rest  for  a  few  minutes  before  dressing  to  go  out 
again,  and  here  was  Anna  in  a  new  mood  of  a  violent 
nature,  and  she  was  weary  beyond  measure  of  all 
Anna's  moods. 

"Oh,  such  a  wonderful  thing  has  happened!" 
cried  Anna  ;  "  Such  a  wonderful  thing  !      What  will 


Ill  THE  BENEFACTRESS  27 

Peter  say  ?     And  how  glad  you  will  be "     And 

she  thrust  the  letters  with  trembling  fingers  into 
Susie's  unresponsive  hand. 

"  What  is  it  ? "  said  Susie,  looking  at  them  be- 
wildered. 

"Oh,  no  —  I  forgot,"  said  Anna,  wildly  as  it 
seemed  to  Susie,  pulling  them  out  of  her  hand  again. 

"You  can't  read  German — see  here "      And  she 

began  to  unfold  them  and  smooth  out  the  creases  she 
had  made,  her  hands  shaking  visibly. 

Susie  stared.  Clearly  something  extraordinary 
had  happened,  for  the  frosty  Anna  of  the  last  few 
months  had  melted  into  a  radiance  of  emotion  that 
would  only  not  be  ridiculous  if  it  turned  out  to  be 
justified. 

"  Two  German  letters,"  said  Anna,  sitting  down 
on  the  nearest  chair,  spreading  them  out  on  her  lap, 
and  talking  as  though  she  could  hardly  get  the  words 
out  fast  enough,  "  one  from  Uncle  Joachim " 

"  Uncle  Joachim  ^  "  repeated  Susie,  a  disagreeable 
and  creepy  doubt  as  to  Anna's  sanity  coming  over 
her.  "  You  know  very  well  he's  dead  and  can't 
write  letters,"  she  said  severely. 

"  — and  one  from  his  lawyer,"  Anna  went  on, 
regardless  of  everything  but  what  she  had  to  tell. 
"  The  lawyer's  letter  is  full  of  technical  words,  diffi- 
cult to  understand,  but  it  is  only  to  confirm  what 
Uncle  Joachim  says,  and  his  is  quite  plain.  He 
wrote  it  some  time  before  he  died,  and  left  it  with 
his  lawyer  to  send  on  to  me." 

Susie  was  listening  now  with  all  her  ears.  Law- 
yers, deceased  uncles,  and  Anna's  sparkling  face 
could  only  have  one  meaning. 

"Uncle  Joachim  was  our  mother's  only  brother " 

"I  know,  I  know,"  interrupted  Susie  impatiently. 


28  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

"  — and  v/as  the  dearest  and  kindest  of  uncles 
to  me " 

"Never  mind  what  he  was,"  interrupted  Susie 
still  more  impatiently.  "  What  has  he  done  for 
you  ^  Tell  me  that.  You  always  pretended,  both 
of  you — Peter  too — that  he  had  miles  of  sandy  places 
somewhere  in  the  desert,  and  dozens  of  boys.  What 
could  he  do  for  you  ?  " 

"Do  for  me  .'' "  Anna  rose  up  with  a  solemnity 
worthy  of  the  great  news  about  to  be  imparted,  put 
both  her  hands  on  Susie's  little  shoulders,  and  look- 
ing down  at  her  with  shining  eyes,  said  slowly,  "  He 
has  left  me  an  estate  bringing  in  forty  thousand 
marks  a  year." 

"  Forty  thousand  !  "  echoed  Susie,  completely  awe- 
struck. 

"  Marks,"  said  Anna. 

"  Oh,  marks,"  said  Susie,  chilled.  "  That's  francs, 
isn't  it  .''     I  really  thought  for  a  moment " 

"  They're  more  than  francs.  It  brings  in,  on  an 
average,  two  thousand  pounds  a  year.  Two  — 
thousand- — pounds — a — year,"  repeated  Anna,  nod- 
ding her  head  at  each  word.  "  Now,  Susie,  what  do 
you  think  of  that  ?  " 

"What  do  I  think  of  it.?  Why,  that  it  isn't 
much.  Where  would  you  all  have  been,  I  wonder, 
if  I  had  only  had  two  thousand  a  year  ?  " 

"  Oh,  congratulate  me  !  "  cried  Anna,  opening  her 
arms.  "  Kiss  me,  and  tell  me  you  are  glad  !  Don't 
you  see  that  I  am  off  your  hands  at  last  ^  That  we 
need  never  think  about  husbands  again  ?  That  you 
will  never  have  to  buy  me  any  more  clothes,  and  never 
tire  your  poor  little  self  out  any  more  trotting  me 
round .?  I  don't  know  which  of  us  is  to  be  congratu- 
lated  most,"    she  added  laughing,  looking  at  Susie 


iir  THE  BENEFACTRESS  29 

with  her  eyes  full  of  tears.  And  then  she  insisted  on 
kissing  her  again,  and  murmured  foolish  things  in  her 
ear  about  being  so  sorry  for  all  her  horrid  ways,  and 
so  grateful  to  her,  and  so  determined  now  to  be  good 
for  ever  and  ever. 

"  My  dear  Anna,"  remonstrated  Susie,  who  dis- 
liked sentiment,  and  never  knew  how  to  respond  to 
exhibitions  of  feeling.  "  Of  course  I  congratulate 
you.  It  almost  seems  as  if  throwing  away  one's 
chances  in  the  way  you  have  done  was  the  right 
thing  to  do,  and  is  being  rewarded.  Don't  let  us 
waste  time.  You  know  we  go  out  to  dinner.  What 
has  he  left  Peter  ^  " 

"  Peter  .f*  "  said  Anna  wonderingly. 

"  Yes,  Peter.  He  was  his  nephew,  I  suppose, 
just  as  much  as  you  were  his  niece." 

"  Well,  but  Susie,  Peter  is  different.  He — he 
doesn't  need  money  as  I  do  ;  and  of  course  Uncle 
Joachim  knew  that." 

"  Nonsense.  He  hasn't  got  a  penny.  Let  me 
look  at  the  letters." 

"  They're  in  German.  You  won't  be  able  to  read 
them." 

"Give  them  to  me.  I  learned  German  at  school, 
and  got  a  prize.  You're  not  the  only  person  in  the 
world  who  can  do  things." 

She  took  them  out  of  Anna's  hand,  and  began 
slowly  and  painfully  to  read  the  one  from  Uncle 
Joachim,  determined  to  see  whether  there  really  was 
no  mention  of  Peter.  Anna  looked  on,  hot  and  cold 
by  turns  with  fright  lest  by  some  chance  her  early 
studies  should  not  after  all  have  been  quite  for- 
gotten. 

■'  Here's  something  about  Peter — and  me,"  Susie 
said  suddenly.      "  At  least,  I  suppose  he  means  me. 


30  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

It  is  something  Dobbs.  Why  does  he  call  me  that  ? 
It  hasn't  been  my  name  for  fifteen  years." 

"  Oh,  It's  some  silly  German  way.  He  says  the 
^ehorene  Dobbs,  to  distinguish  you  from  other  Lady 
Estcourts." 

"  But  there  are  no  others." 

"  Oh,  well,  his  sister  was  one.  Give  me  the 
letter,  Susie — I  can  tell  you  what  he  says  much 
more  quickly  than  you  can  read  it.' 

"  *  Unter  der  Wurde  einer  junge  Dame  aus  guter 
Familie^  "  read  out  Susie  slowly,  not  heeding  Anna, 
and  with  the  most  excruciating  pronunciation  that 
was  ever  heard,  " '  sich  ewig  auf  den  Federn,  mit 
welchen  die  hurgerliche  Gans  geborene  Dobbs  Peter  s 
sonst  mangelhaftes  Nest  ausgestattet  hat^  zu  w'dlzen' 
What  stuff  he  writes.  I  can  hardly  understand  it. 
Yet  I  must  have  been  good  at  it  at  school,  to  get  the 
prize.     What  is  that  bit  about  me  and  Peter  }  " 

*'  Which  bit  }  "  said  Anna,  blushing  scarlet.  "  Let 
me  look."  She  got  the  letter  back  into  her  posses- 
sion. "Oh,  that's  where  he  says  that  —  that  he 
doesn't  think  it  fair  that  I  should  be  a  burden  for 
ever  on  you  and  Peter." 

"  Well,  that's  sensible  enough.  The  old  man  had 
some  sense  in  him  after  all,  absurd  though  he  was, 
and  vulgar.  It  isnt  fair,  of  course.  I  don't  mean 
to  say  anything  disagreeable,  or  throw  all  I  have  done 
for  you  in  your  face,  but  really,  Anna,  few  mothers 
would  have  made  the  sacrifices  I  have  for  you,  and  as 
for  sisters-in-law — well,  I'd  just  like  to  see  another." 

"  Dear  Susie,"  said  Anna  tenderly,  putting  her 
arm  round  her,  ready  to  acknowledge  all,  and  more 
than  aJl,  the  benefits  she  had  received,  "  you  have 
been  only  too  kind  and  generous.  I  know  that  I 
owe  you  everything  in  the  world,  and  just  think  how 


in  THE  BENEFACTRESS  31 

lovely  it  is  for  me  to  feel  that  now  I  can  take  my 
weight  off  your  shoulders  !  You  must  come  and  live 
with  me  now,  whenever  you  are  sick  of  things,  and 
I'll  feel  so  proud,  having  you  in  my  house  !  " 

"  Live  with  you  ?  "  exclaimed  Susie,  drawing  her- 
self away,  "  Where  are  you  going  to  live?  " 

"  Why,  there,  I  suppose." 

"  Live  there  !      Is  that  a  condition  ?  " 

"  No,  but  Uncle  Joachim  keeps  on  saying  he  hopes 
I  will,  and  that  I'll  settle  down,  and  look  after  the 
place." 

"  Look  after  the  place  yourself.''     How  silly." 

"  Yes,  you  haven't  taught  me  much  about  farming, 
have  you }  He  wants  me  to  turn  quite  into  a 
German." 

"  Good  gracious  !  "  cried  Susie,  genuinely  horri- 
fied. 

"  He  seems  to  think  that  I  ought  to  work,  and 
not  spend  my  life  talking  Klatsch.'' 

"  Talking  what  .^  " 

"  It's  what  German  women  apparently  talk  when 
they  get  together.  We  don't.  I'd  never  do  any- 
thing with  such  an  ugly  name,  and  I'm  positive  you 
wouldn't." 

"  Where  is  this  place  .^  " 

"  Near  Stralsund." 

"  And  where  on  earth  is  that } " 

"  Ah,"  said  Anna,  investigating  cobwebby  corners 
of  her  memory,  "  that's  what  I  should  like  to  be  able 
to  remember.  Perhaps,"  she  added  honestly,  "  I 
never  knew.  Let  me  call  Letty,  and  ask  her  to 
bring  her  atlas," 

"  Letty  won't  know,"  said  Susie  impatiently  ;  "  she 
only  knows  the  things  she  oughtn't  to." 

"  Oh,  she  isn't  as  wise  as  all  that,"  said  Anna, 


32  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

ringing  the  bell.  "  Anyhow  she  has  maps,  which  is 
more  than  we  have." 

A  servant  was  sent  to  request  Miss  Letty  Estcourt 
to  attend  in  the  drawing-room  with  her  atlas. 

*' Whatever's  in  the  wind  now,^  "  inquired  Letty, 
open-mouthed,  of  her  governess.  "They're  not 
going  to  examine  me  this  time  of  night,  are  they, 
Leechy  ?  "  For  she  suffered  greatly  from  having  a 
brother  who  was  always  passing  examinations  and  com- 
ing out  top,  and  was  consequently  subjected  herself, 
by  an  ambitious  mother  who  was  sure  that  she  must 
be  equally  clever  if  she  would  only  let  herself  go,  to 
every  examination  that  happened  to  be  going  for  girls 
of  her  age  ;  so  that  she  and  Miss  Leech  spent  their 
days  either  on  the  defensive,  preparing  for  these 
unprovoked  assaults,  or  in  the  state  of  collapse 
which  followed  the  regularly  recurring  defeat,  and 
both  found  their  lives  a  burden  too  great  to  be 
borne. 

There  was  a  preliminary  scuffle  of  washing  and 
brushing,  and  then  Letty  marched  into  the  drawing- 
room,  her  atlas  under  her  arm,  and  deep  suspicion  on 
her  face.  But  no  bland  and  treacherous  examiner 
was  visible,  covering  his  preliminary  movements  with 
ghastly  pleasantries  ;  only  her  mother  and  her  pretty 
aunt. 

"  Where's  Stralsund  ? "  they  cried  together,  as 
she  opened  the  door. 

Letty  stopped  short  and  stared.  "  What's  that  ?  " 
she  asked. 

"  It's  a  place — a  place  in  Germany." 

"  Letty,  do  you  mean  to  tell  me  that  you  don't 
know  where  Stralsund  is  ? "  asked  Susie,  in  a  voice 
that  would  have  been  of  thunder  if  it  had  been  big 
enough.     "Do   you  mean  to  say  that   after  all  the 


iir  THE  BENEFACTRESS  33 

money  I  have  spent  on  your  education  you  don't 
know  that?  " 

Was  this  a  new  form  of  torture  ?  Was  she  to 
find  the  examining  spirit  lurking  even  in  the  famiHar 
and  hitherto  harmless  forms  of  her  mother  and  her 
aunt  ?  She  openly  showed  her  disgust.  "  If  it's  a 
place,  it's  in  this  atlas,"  she  said,  "  and  if  this  is  going 
to  be  an  examination,  I  don't  think  it's  fair  ;  and  if 
it's  a  game,  I  don't  like  it."  And  she  threw  her 
atlas  unceremoniously  on  to  the  nearest  chair  ;  for 
though  her  mother  could  force  her  to  do  many  things, 
she  could  never,  somehow,  force  her  to  be  respectful. 

"  What  a  horror  the  child  has  of  lessons  !  "  cried 
Susie.  "  Don't  be  so  silly.  We  only  want  to  see  if 
you  know  where  Stralsund  is,  that's  all." 

"Tell  us  where  it  is,  Letty,"  said  Anna  coax- 
ingly,  kneeling  down  in  front  of  the  chair  and  open- 
ing the  atlas.  "  Let  us  find  the  map  of  Germany 
and  look  for  it.  Why,  you  did  Germany  for  your 
last  exam. — you  must  have  it  all  at  your  fingers' 
ends." 

"  It  didn't  stay  there,  then,"  said  Letty,  moodily  ; 
but  she  went  over  to  Anna,  wrio  was  always  kind  to 
her,  and  began  to  turn  over  the  well-thumbed  pages. 

Oh,  what  recollections  lurked  in  those  dirty 
corners  !  Surely  it  is  hard  on  a  person  of  fourteen, 
who  is  as  fond  of  enjoying  herself  as  anybody  else,  to 
be  made  to  wrestle  with  maps  upstairs  in  a  dreary 
room,  when  the  sun  is  shining,  and  the  voices  of  the 
children  passing  come  up  joyously  to  the  prison 
windows,  and  all  the  world  is  out  of  doors  ?  Letty 
thought  so,  and  Miss  Leech  thought  it  hard  on  a 
person  of  thirty,  and  each  tried  to  console  the  other, 
but  neither  knew  how,  for  their  case  seemed  very 
hopeless.      Did  not  unending  vistas  of  classes   and 

D 


34  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

lectures  stretch  away  before  and  behind  them,  dotted 
at  intervals,  oh,  so  frequent !  with  the  black  spots  of 
examinations  ?  Was  not  the  pavement  of  Gower 
Street,  and  Kensington  Square,  and  of  all  those  dis- 
tricts where  girls  can  be  lectured  into  wisdom,  quite 
worn  by  their  patient  feet?  And  then  the  accom- 
plishments !  Oh,  what  a  life  it  was  !  A  man  came 
twice  a  week  and  insisted  on  teaching  her  to  fiddle  ; 
a  highly  nervous  man,  who  jerked  her  elbow  and 
rapped  her  knuckles  with  his  bow  whenever  she 
played  out  of  tune,  which  was  all  the  time,  and  made 
bitter  remarks  of  a  killingly  sarcastic  nature  to  Miss 
Leech  when  she  stumbled  over  the  accompaniments. 
On  Wednesdays  there  was  a  dancing  class,  where  a 
pinched  young  lady  played  the  piano  with  the  energy 
of  despair,  and  a  hot  and  agile  master  with  unduly 
turned-out  toes  taught  the  girls  the  Lancers,  earning 
his  bread  in  the  sweat  of  his  brow.  He  also  was 
sarcastic,  but  he  clothed  his  sarcasms  in  the  garb  of 
kindly  fun,  laughing  gently  at  them  himself,  and 
expecting  his  pupils  to  laugh  too  ;  which  they  did 
uneasily,  for  the  fun  was  of  a  personal  nature,  evoked 
by  the  clumsiness  or  stupidity  of  one  or  other  of 
them,  and  none  knew  when  her  own  turn  might  not 
come.  The  lesson  ended  with  what  he  called  the 
March  of  Grace  round  the  room,  each  girl  by  herself, 
no  music  to  drown  the  noise  her  shoes  made  on  the 
bare  boards,  the  others  looking  on,  and  the  master 
making  comments.  This  march  was  terrible  to 
Letty.  All  her  nightmares  were  connected  with  it. 
She  was  a  podgy,  dull-looking  girl,  fat  and  pale  and 
awkward,  and  her  mother  made  her  wear  cheap  shoes 
that  creaked.  "  Miss  Estcourt  has  new  shoes  on 
again,"  the  dancing  master  would  say,  gently  smiling, 
when  Letty  was  well  on  her  way  round  the  room,  cut 


Ill  THE  BENEFACTRESS  35 

off  from  all  human  aid,  conscious  of  every  inch  of 
her  body,  desperately  trying  to  be  graceful.  And 
everybody  tittered  except  the  victim.  "  You  know, 
Miss  Estcourt,"  he  would  say  at  every  second  lesson, 
"  there  is  a  saying  that  creaking  shoes  have  not  been 
paid  for.  I  beg  your  pardon  .''  Did  you  say  they 
had  been  paid  for  .''  Miss  Estcourt  says  she  does  not 
know."  And  he  would  turn  to  his  other  pupils  with 
a  shrug  and  a  gentle  smile. 

On  Saturday  afternoons  there  were  the  Popular 
Concerts  at  St.  James's  Hall  to  be  gone  to — Susie 
regarded  them  as  educational,  and  subscribed — and 
Letty,  who  always  had  chilblains  on  her  feet  in  winter, 
suffered  tortures  trying  not  to  rub  them  ;  for  as 
surely  as  she  moved  one  foot  and  began  to  rub  the 
other  with  it,  however  gently,  fierce  enthusiasts  in 
the  row  in  front  would  turn  on  her — old  gentlemen 
of  an  otherwise  humane  appearance,  rapt  ladies  with 
eyeglasses  and  loose  clothes — and  sh-sh-  her  with 
furious  hissings  into  immobility.  "  Oh,  Letty,  try  and 
sit  still,"  Miss  Leech,  who  dreaded  publicity,  would 
implore  in  a  whisper  ;  but  who  that  has  not  had  them 
can  know  the  torture  of  chilblains  inside  thick  boots, 
where  they  cannot  be  got  at .''  As  soon  as  the  chil- 
blains went,  the  Saturday  concerts  left  off,  and  it 
seemed  as  though  Fate  had  nothing  better  to  do  than 
to  be  spiteful. 

It  was  indeea  a  dreadful  thing,  thought  Letty, 
as  she  bent  over  the  map  of  Germany,  to  be  young 
and  to  have  to  be  made  clever  at  all  costs.  Here 
was  her  aunt  even,  her  pretty,  kind  aunt,  asking  her 
geography  questions  at  seven  o'clock  at  night,  when 
she  thought  that  she  had  really  done  with  lessons  for 
one  more  day,  and  had  been  so  much  enjoying  Leech y's 
description  of  the  only  man  she  ever  loved,  while  she 


36  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

comfortably  toasted  cheese  at  the  schoolroom  fire. 
Anna,  who  spent  such  lofty  hours  of  spiritual  exalta- 
tion at  St.  Paul's,  and  came  away  with  her  soul  melted 
into  pity  for  the  unhappy,  and  yearned  with  her 
whole  being  to  help  them,  never  thought  of  Letty  as 
a  creature  who  might  perhaps  be  helped  to  cheer- 
fulness with  a  little  trouble.  Letty  was  too  close  at 
hand  ;  and  enthusiastic  philanthropists,  casting  about 
for  objects  of  charity,  seldom  see  what  is  at  their 
feet. 

It  was  so  difficult  to  find  Stralsund  that  by  the 
time  Letty's  wandering  finger  had  paused  upon  it 
Susie  could  only  give  one  glance  of  horror  at  its  posi- 
tion, and  hurry  away  with  Anna  to  dress.  Anna, 
too,  would  have  preferred  it  to  be  farther  south,  in 
the  Black  Forest,  or  some  other  romantic  region, 
where  it  would  have  amused  her  to  go  occasionally, 
at  least,  for  a  few  weeks  in  the  summer.  But  there 
it  was,  as  far  north  as  it  could  be,  in  a  part  of  the 
world  she  had  hardly  heard  of,  except  in  connection 
with  dogs. 

It  did  not,  however,  matter  where  it  was.  Uncle 
Joachim  had  merely  recommended  and  not  enjoined. 
It  would  be  rather  extraordinary  for  her  to  go  there 
and  set  up  housekeeping  alone.  She  need  not  go  ; 
she  was  almost  sure  she  would  not  go.  Anyhow 
there  was  no  necessity  to  decide  at  once.  The 
money  was  what  she  wanted,  and  she  could  spend  it 
where  she  chose.  Let  Uncle  Joachim's  inspector,  of 
whom  he  wrote  in  such  praise,  go  on  getting  forty 
thousand  marks  a  year  out  of  the  place,  and  she 
would  be  perfectly  content. 

She  ran  upstairs  to  put  on  her  prettiest  dress,  and 
to  have  her  hair  done  in  the  curls  and  waves  she  had 
so  long  eschewed.     Should  she  not  make  herself  as 


Ill  THE  BENEFACTRESS  37 

charming  as  possible  for  this  charming  world,  where 
everybody  was  so  good  and  kind,  and  add  her 
measure  of  beauty  and  kindness  to  the  rest  ?  She 
beamed  on  Letty  as  she  passed  her  on  the  stairs, 
chmbing  slowly  up  with  her  big  atlas,  and  took  it 
from  her  and  would  carry  it  herself;  she  beamed  on 
Miss  Leech,  who  was  watching  for  her  pupil  at  the 
schoolroom  door  ;  she  beamed  on  her  maid,  she 
beamed  on  her  own  reflection  in  the  glass,  which 
indeed  at  that  moment  was  that  of  a  very  beautiful 
young  woman.  Oh  happy,  happy  world !  What 
should  she  do  with  so  much  money  ?  She,  who  had 
never  had  a  penny  in  her  life,  thought  it  an  enormous, 
an  inexhaustible  sum.  One  thing  was  certain — it  was 
all  to  be  spent  in  doing  good  ;  she  would  help  as  many 
people  with  it  as  she  possibly  could,  and  never,  never, 
never  let  them  feel  that  they  were  under  obligations. 
Did  she  not  know,  after  fifteen  years  of  dependence 
on  Susie,  what  it  was  like  to  be  under  obligations  ? 
And  what  was  more  cruelly  sad  and  crushing  and 
deadening  than  dependence  ?  She  did  not  yet  know 
what  sort  of  people  she  would  help,  or  in  what  way 
she  would  help,  but  oh,  she  was  going  to  make  heaps 
of  people  happy  for  ever !  While  Hilton  was  curling 
her  hair,  she  thought  of  slums  ;  but  remembered  that 
they  would  bring  her  into  contact  with  the  clergy, 
and  most  of  her  offers  of  late  had  been  from  the 
clergy.  Even  the  vicar  who  had  prepared  her  for 
confirmation,  his  first  wife  being  then  alive,  and  a 
second  having  since  been  mourned,  had  wanted  to 
marrv  her.  "  It's  because  I  am  twenty-five  and 
staid  that  they  think  me  suitable,"  she  thought  ;  but 
she  could  not  help  smiling  at  the  face  in  the  glass. 

When  she  was  dressed  and  ready  to  go  down  she 
was  forced  to  ask  herself  whether  the  person  that  she 


38  THE  BENEFACTRESS       chap,  iii 

saw  in  the  glass  looked  in  the  least  like  a  person  who 
would  ever  lead  the  simple,  frugal,  hard-working  life 
that  Uncle  Joachim  had  called  the  better  life,  and  in 
which  he  seemed  to  think  she  would  alone  find  con- 
tentment. Certainly  she  knew  him  to  be  very  wise. 
Well,  nothing  need  be  decided  yet.  Perhaps  she 
would  go — perhaps  she  would  not.  "  It's  this  white 
dress  that  makes  me  look  so — so  unsuitable,"  she 
said  to  herself,  "  and  Hilton's  wonderful  waves." 

And  she  went  downstairs  trying  not  to  sing,  the 
sweetest  of  feminine  creatures,  happiness  and  love 
and  kindness  shining  in  her  eyes,  a  lovely  thing 
saved  from  the  blight  of  empty  years,  and  brought 
back  to  beauty,  by  Uncle  Joachim's  timely  inter- 
ference. 

Letty  and  Miss  Leech  heara  the  singing,  and 
stopped  involuntarily  in  their  conversation.  It  was 
a  strange  sound  in  that  dull  and  joyless  house. 

"  I  don't  know  what's  the  matter,  Leechy,"  Letty 
had  said,  on  her  return  from  the  drawing-room,  "  but 
mamma  and  Aunt  Anna  are  too  weird  to-night  for 
anything.  What  do  you  think  they  had  me  down 
for.f'  They  didn't  know  where  Stralsund  was,  and 
wanted  to  find  out.  They  pretended  they  wanted  to 
see  if  /  knew,  but  I  soon  saw  through  that  game. 
And  Aunt  Anna  looks  frightfully  happy.  I  believe 
she's  going  to  be  married,  and  wants  to  go  to  Stral- 
sund for  the  honeymoon." 

And  Letty  took  up  her  toasting  fork  while  Miss 
Leech,  as  in  duty  bound,  refreshed  her  pupil's 
memory  in  regard  to  Stralsund  and  Wallenstein  and 
the  Hansa  cities  generally. 


CHAPTER   IV 

Peter,  meditating  on  the  banks  of  the  river  at 
Estcourt,  came  to  the  conclusion  that  a  journey  to 
London  would  be  made  unnecessary  by  the  equal 
efficacy  of  a  congratulatory  letter. 

He  had  been  greatly  moved  by  the  news  of  his 
sister's  good  fortune,  and  in  the  first  flush  of  pleasure 
and  sympathy  had  ordered  his  things  to  be  packed 
in  readiness  for  his  departure  by  the  night  train. 
Then  he  had  gone  down  to  the  river,  and  there, 
thinking  the  matter  over  quietly,  amid  the  soothing 
influences  of  grey  sky,  grey  water,  and  green  grass, 
he  gradually  perceived  that  a  letter  would  convey  all 
that  he  felt  quite  well,  perhaps  better  than  any  verbal 
expressions  of  joy,  and  as  he  would  in  any  case  only 
stay  a  few  hours  in  town  the  long  journey  seemed 
hardly  worth  while.  He  sent  a  letter,  therefore, 
that  very  evening — a  kind,  brotherly  letter,  in  which, 
after  heartily  congratulating  his  dear  little  sister,  he 
said  that  it  would  be  necessary  for  her  to  go  over  to 
Germany,  see  the  lawyer,  and  take  possession  of  her 
property.  When  she  had  done  that,  and  made  all 
arrangements  as  to  the  future  payment  of  the  income 
derived  from  the  estate,  she  would  of  course  come  back 
to  them  ;  for  Estcourt  was  always  to  be  her  home, 
and  now  that  she  was  independent  she  would  no  longer 


40  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

be  obliged  to  be  wherever  Susie  was,  but  would,  he 
hoped,  come  to  him,  and  they  could  go  fishing 
together, — "  and  there's  nothing  to  beat  fishing,"  con- 
cluded Peter,  "  if  you  want  peace." 

But  Anna  did  not  want  peace  ;  at  least,  not  that 
kind  of  peace  just  at  that  moment.  Sitting  in  a  punt 
was  not  what  she  wanted.  She  was  thrilled  by  the 
love  of  her  less  fortunate  fellow-creatures,  and  the 
sense  of  power  to  help  them,  and  the  longing  to  go 
and  do  it.  What  she  really  wanted  of  Peter  was 
that  he  should  take  her  to  Germany  and  help  her 
through  the  formalities  ;  for  before  his  letter  arrived 
she  too  had  seen  that  that  was  the  first  thing  to  be 
done. 

Of  this,  however,  he  did  not  write  a  word.  She 
thought  he  must  have  forgotten,  so  natural  did  it 
appear  to  her  that  her  brother  should  go  with  her  ; 
and  she  wrote  him  a  little  note,  asking  when  he 
would  be  able  to  get  away.  She  received  a  long 
letter  in  reply,  full  of  regrets,  excuses,  and  good 
reasons,  which  she  read  wonderingly.  Had  she  been 
selfish,  or  was  Peter  selfish  ?  She  thought  it  all  out 
carefully,  and  found  that  it  was  she  who  had  been 
selfish  to  expect  Peter,  always  a  hater  of  business  and 
a  lover  of  quiet,  to  go  all  that  way  and  worry  himself 
with  tiresome  money  arrangements.  Besides,  perhaps 
he  was  not  feeling  well.  She  knew  he  sufi^ered  from 
rheumatism  ;  and  when  you  have  rheumatism  the 
mere  thought  of  a  long  journey  is  appalling. 

Susie,  whose  head  was  very  clear  on  all  matters 
concerning  money,  had  also  recognised  the  necessity 
of  Anna's  going  to  Germany,  and  had  also  regarded 
Peter  as  the  most  natural  companion  and  guide  ;  but 
she  was  not  surprised  when  Anna  told  her  that  he 
could  not  go.     "  It  was  too  much  to  expect,"  apolo- 


IV  THE  BENEFACTRESS  41 

gised    Anna.       "  He   often    has   rheumatism    in    the 
spring,  and  perhaps  he  has  it  now." 

Susie  sniffed. 

"  The  question  is,"  said  Anna  after  a  pause, 
"  what  am  I  to  do,  helpless  virgin,  in  spite  of  my 
years, — never  aWe  to  do  a  thing  for  myself  .'*  " 

"  I'll  go  with  you." 

*'  You.?     But  what  about  your  engagements  ?  " 

"  Oh,  I'll  throw  them  over,  and  take  you.  Letty 
can  come  too.  It  will  do  her  German  good.  Herr 
Schumpf  says  he's  ashamed  of  her." 

Susie  had  various  reasons  for  offering  herself  so 
amiably,  one  being  certainly  curiosity.  But  the  chief 
one  was  that  the  same  woman  who  had  been  so  rude 
to  her  the  day  Anna's  news  came,  had  sent  out  in- 
vitations to  all  the  world  to  her  daughter's  wedding 
after  Easter,  and  had  not  sent  one  to  Susie. 

This  was  one  of  those  trials  that  cannot  be  faced. 
If  she,  being  in  London  at  the  time,  carefully  ex- 
plained to  her  friends  that  she  was  ill  that  day,  and 
did  actually  stay  in  bed  and  dose  herself  the  days 
preceding  and  following,  who  would  believe  her  ? 
Not  if  she  waved  a  doctor's  certificate  in  their  faces 
would  they  believe  her.  They  would  know  that  she 
had  not  been  invited,  and  would  rejoice.  She  felt 
that  she  could  not  bear  it.  An  unavoidable  business 
journey  to  the  Continent  was  exactly  what  she  wanted 
to  help  her  out  of  this  desperate  situation.  On  her 
return  she  would  be  able  to  hear  the  wedding  dis- 
cussed and  express  her  disappointment  at  having 
missed  it  with  a  serene  brow  and  a  quiet  mind. 

It  is  doubtful  whether  she  would  have  gone  with 
Anna,  however  urgent  Anna's  need,  if  she  had  been 
included  in  those  invitations.  But  Anna,  who  could 
not  know  the  secret  workings  of  her  mind,  once  more 


42  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

remembered  her  former  treatment  of  Susie,  so  kind 
and  willing  to  do  all  she  could,  and  hung  her  head 
with  shame. 

They  left  London  a  day  or  two  before  Easter, 
Letty  and  Miss  Leech,  both  of  them  nearly  ill  with 
suppressed  delight  at  the  unexpected  holiday,  going 
with  them.  They  had  announced  their  coming  to 
Uncle  Joachim's  lawyer,  and  asked  him  to  make 
arrangements  for  their  accommodation  at  Kleinwalde, 
Anna's  new  possession.  Susie  proposed  to  stay  a 
day  in  Berlin,  which  would  give  Anna  time  to  talk 
everything  over  with  the  lawyer,  and  would  enable 
Letty  to  visit  the  museums.  She  had  a  hopeful 
idea  that  Letty  would  absorb  German  at  every  pore 
once  she  was  in  the  country  itself,  and  that  being 
brought  face  to  face  with  the  statues  of  Goethe  and 
Schiller  on  their  native  soil  would  kindle  the  sparks 
of  interest  in  German  literature  that  she  supposed 
every  well-taught  child  possessed,  into  the  roaring 
flame  of  enthusiasm.  She  could  not  believe  that 
Letty  had  no  sparks.  One  of  her  children  being 
so  abnormally  clever,  it  must  be  sheer  obstinacy  on 
the  part  of  the  other  that  prevented  it  from  acquir- 
ing the  knowledge  offered  daily  in  such  unstinted 
quantities.  She  had  no  illusions  in  regard  to  Letty's 
person,  and  felt  that  as  she  would  never  be  pretty 
it  was  of  importance  that  she  should  at  least  be 
cultured.  She  sat  opposite  her  daughter  in  the 
train,  and  having  nothing  better  to  do  during  the 
long  hours  that  they  were  jolting  across  North 
Germany,  looked  at  her  ;  and  the  more  she  looked 
the  more  unreasoningly  angry  she  became  that 
Peter's  sister  should  be  so  pretty  and  Peter's 
daughter  so  plain.  And  then  so  fat  !  What  a 
horrible  thing  to  have  to  take  a  fat  daughter  about 


IV  THE  BENEFACTRESS  43 

with  you  in  society.  Where  did  she  get  it  from  ? 
She  herself  and  Peter  were  the  leanest  of  mortals. 
It  must  be  that  Letty  ate  too  much,  which  was  not 
only  a  disgusting  practice  but  an  expensive  one,  and 
should  be  put  down  at  once  with  rigour.  Susie 
had  not  had  such  an  opportunity  of  thoroughly  in- 
specting her  child  for  years,  and  the  result  of  this 
prolonged  examination  of  her  weak  points  was  that 
she  would  not  let  any  of  the  party  have  anything  to 
eat  at  all,  declaring  that  it  was  vulgar  to  eat  in 
trains,  expressing  amazement  that  people  should 
bring  themselves  to  touch  the  horrid-looking  food 
offered,  and  turning  her  back  in  impatient  disgust  on 
two  stout  German  ladies  who  had  got  in  at  Ober- 
hausen,  and  who  were  enjoying  their  lunch  quite 
unmoved  by  her  contempt  —  one  eating  a  chicken 
from  beginning  to  end  without  a  fork,  and  the  other 
taking  repeated  sips  of  an  obviously  satisfactory 
nature  from  a  big  wine  bottle  which  was  used,  in 
the  intervals,  as  a  support  to  her  back. 

By  the  time  Berlin  was  reached,  these  ladies, 
having  been  properly  fed  all  day,  were  very  cheerful, 
whereas  Susie's  party  was  speechless  from  exhaus- 
tion ;  especially  poor  Miss  Leech,  who  was  never 
very  strong,  and  so  nearly  fainted  that  Susie  was 
obliged  to  notice  it,  and  expressed  a  conviction  to 
Anna  in  a  loud  and  peevish  aside  that  Miss  Leech 
was  going  to  be  a  nuisance. 

"  It  is  strange,"  thought  Anna,  as  she  crept  into 
bed,  "how  travelling  brings  out  one's  worst  passions." 

It  is  indeed  strange  ;  for  it  is  certain  that  no- 
thing equals  the  expectant  enthusiasm  and  mutual 
esteem  of  the  start  except  the  cold  dislike  of  the 
finish.  Many  are  the  friendships  that  have  found 
an   unforeseen   and  sudden   end    on   a  journey,  and 


44  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

few  are  those  that  survive  it.  But  if  Horace 
Walpole  and  Gray  fell  out,  if  Byron  and  Leigh 
Hunt  were  obliged  to  part,  if  a  host  of  other  per- 
sonages, endowed  with  every  gift  that  makes  com- 
panionship desirable,  could  not  away  with  each  other 
after  a  few  weeks  together  abroad,  is  it  to  be 
wondered  at  that  weaker  vessels  such  as  Susie  and 
Anna,  Letty  and  Miss  Leech,  should  have  found 
the  short  journey  from  London  to  Berlin  sufficient 
to  enable  them  to  see  one  another's  failings  with  a 
clearness  of  vision  that  was  startling.'' 

On  the  lawyer,  a  keen-eyed  man  with  a  con- 
spicuously fine  face,  Anna  made  an  entirely  favour- 
able impression.  When  he  saw  this  gracious  young 
lady,  so  simple  and  so  friendly,  and  looked  into  her 
frank  and  charming  eyes,  he  perfectly  understood 
that  old  Joachim  should  have  been  bewitched.  But 
after  a  little  conversation,  it  appeared  that  she 
had  no  present  intention  of  carrying  out  her  uncle's 
wishes,  but,  setting  them  coolly  aside,  proposed  to 
spend  all  the  good  German  money  she  could  extract 
from  her  property  in  that  replete  and  bloated  land, 
England. 

This  annoyed  him ;  first  because  he  hated  England 
and  then  because  his  father  had  managed  old  Joachim's 
afFiiirs  before  he  himself  had  stepped  into  the  paternal 
shoes,  and  the  feeling  of  both  father  and  son  for  the 
old  man  had  been  considerably  warmer  than  is  usual 
between  lawyer  and  client.  Still  he  could  not  believe, 
judging  after  the  manner  of  men,  that  anything  so 
pretty  could  also  be  unkind  ;  and  scrutinising 
Lady  Estcourt,  because  she  was  unattractive,  and 
had  a  sharp  little  face  and  a  restless  little  body,  he 
was  convinced  that  she  it  was  who  was  the  cause  of 
this  setting  aside  of  a  dead  benefactor's  wishes.    Susie, 


IV  THE  BENEFACTRESS  45 

for  her  part,  patronised  him  because  his  collar  turned 
down. 

Whenever  Letty  thought  afterwards  of  Berlin, 
she  thought  of  it  as  a  place  where  all  the  houses  are 
museums,  and  where  you  drink  so  many  cups  of 
chocolate  with  whipped  cream  on  the  top  that  you 
see  things  double  for  the  rest  of  the  time. 

Anna  thought  of  it  as  a  charming  place,  where 
delightful  lawyers  fill  your  purse  with  money. 

Susie  thought  of  it  with  satisfaction  as  the  one 
place  abroad  where,  by  dint  of  sternest  economy, 
walks  from  sight  to  sight  in  the  rain,  and  pro- 
miscuous cakes  instead  of  the  more  satisfactory  but 
less  cheap  meals  Letty  called  square,  she  had  success- 
fully defended  herself  from  being,  as  she  put  it, 
fleeced. 

To  Miss  Leech,  it  was  merely  a  place  where  your 
feet  get  wet,  and  your  clothes  are  spoilt. 

Early  the  next  morning  they  started  for  Kleinwalde. 


CHAPTER    V 

Stralsund  is  an  old  town  of  gabled  houses,  ancient 
churches,  and  quaint,  roughly-paved  streets,  forming 
an  island,  and  joined  to  the  mainland  by  dykes. 
It  looks  its  best  in  the  early  summer,  when  the  green 
and  marshy  plains  on  whose  edge  it  stands  are 
strewn  with  kingcups,  and  the  little  white  clouds 
hang  over  them  almost  motionless,  and  the  cattle 
are  out,  and  the  larks  sing,  and  the  orange  and  red 
sails  of  the  fishing-smacks  on  the  narrow  belt  of  sea 
that  divides  the  town  from  the  island  of  Riigen 
make  brilliant  points  of  contrasting  colour  between 
the  blue  of  water  and  sky.  There  is  a  divine  fresh- 
ness and  brightness  about  the  surrounding  stretches 
of  coarse  grass  and  common  flowers  at  that  blest 
season  of  the  year.  The  air  is  full  of  the  smell  of 
the  sea.  The  sun  beats  down  fiercely  on  plain  and 
city.  The  people  come  out  of  the  rooms  in  which 
most  of  their  life  is  spent,  and  stand  in  the  door- 
ways and  remark  on  the  heat.  An  occasional  heavy 
cart  bumps  over  the  stones,  heard  in  that  sleepy 
place  for  several  minutes  before  and  after  its  passing. 
There  is  an  honest,  tarry,  fishy  smell  everywhere ; 
and  the  traveller  of  poetic  temperament  in  search  of 
the  picturesque,  and  not  too  nice  about  his  comforts, 
could  not  fail,  visiting  it   for   the  first  time  in  the 


CHAP.  V         THE  BENEFACTRESS  47 

month  of  June,  to  be  wholly  delighted  that  he  had 
come. 

But  in  winter,  and  especially  in  those  doubly 
gloomy  days  at  the  end  of  winter,  when  spring 
ought  to  have  shown  some  signs  of  its  approach 
and  has  not  done  so,  those  days  of  howling  winds 
and  driving  rain  and  frequent  belated  snowstorms, 
this  plain  is  merely  a  bleak,  expanse  of  dreariness, 
with  a  forlorn  old  town  huddling  in  its  farthest 
corner. 

It  was  at  its  very  bleakest  and  dreariest  on  the 
morning  that  Susie  and  her  three  companions  travelled 
across  it.  "  What  a  place ! "  exclaimed  Susie,  as  mile 
after  mile  was  traversed,  and  there  was  still  the  same 
succession  of  flat  ploughed  fields,  marshes,  and 
ploughed  fields  again,  with  a  rare  group  of  furiously 
swaying  pine  trees  or  of  silver  birches  bent  double 
before  the  wind.  "  What  a  part  of  the  world  to 
come  and  live  in  !  That  old  uncle  of  yours  was 
as  cracked  as  he  could  be  to  think  you'd  ever  stay 
here  for  good.  And  imagine  spending  even  a  single 
shilling  buying  land  here.  I  wouldn't  take  a  barrow- 
ful  at  a  gift." 

"  Well,  I  am  taking  a  great  many  barrowfuls," 
said  Anna,  "  and  I  am  sure  Uncle  Joachim  was  right 
to  buy  a  place  here — he  was  always  right." 

"  Oh,  of  course,  it's  your  duty  now  to  praise  him 
up.  Perhaps  it  gets  better  farther  on,  but  I  don't 
see  how  anybody  can  squeeze  two  thousand  a  year 
out  of  a  desert  like  this." 

The  prospect  from  the  railway  that  day  was  cer- 
tainly not  attractive  ;  but  Anna  told  herself  that  any 
place  would  look  dreary  such  weather,  and  was  much 
too  happy  in  the  first  flush  of  independence  to  be 
depressed  by  anything  whatever.      Had  she  not  that 


48  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

very  morning  given  the  chambermaid  at  the  Berlin 
hotel  so  bounteous  a  reward  for  services  not  rendered 
that  the  woman  herself  had  said  it  was  too  much  ? 
Thus  making  amends  for  those  innumerable  de- 
partures from  hotels  when  Susie  had  escaped  without 
giving  anything  at  all.  Had  she  not  also  asked,  and 
readily  obtained,  permission  of  Susie  at  the  station  in 
Berlin  to  pay  for  the  tickets  of  the  whole  party  .'' 
And  had  it  not  been  a  delightful  and  warming  feel- 
ing, buying  those  tickets  for  other  people  instead  of 
having  tickets  bought  by  other  people  for  herself.''  At 
Pasewalk,  a  little  town  half  way  between  Berlin  and 
Stralsund,  where  the  train  stopped  ten  minutes,  she 
insisted  on  getting  out,  defying  the  sleet  and  the 
puddles,  and  went  into  the  refreshment  room,  and 
bought  eggs  and  rolls  and  cakes, — everything  she 
could  find  that  was  least  offensive.  Also  a  guide- 
book to  Stralsund,  though  she  was  not  going  to  stop 
in  Stralsund  ;  also  some  postcards  with  views  on  them, 
though  she  never  used  postcards  with  views  on  them, 
and  came  back  loaded  with  parcels,  her  face  glowing 
with  childish  pleasure  at  spending  money. 

"  My  dear  Anna,"  said  Susie  ;  but  she  was  hungry, 
and  ate  a  roll  with  perfect  complacency,  allowing 
Letty  to  do  the  same,  although  only  two  days  had 
elapsed  since  she  had  so  energetically  lectured  her  on 
the  grossness  of  eating  in  trains. 

Susie  was  in  a  particularly  amiable  frame  of  mind, 
and  in  spite  of  the  weather  was  looking  forward  to 
seeing  the  place  Uncle  Joachim  had  thought  would 
be  a  fit  home  for  his  niece  ;  and  as  she  and  Anna 
were  sitting  together  at  one  end  of  the  carriage,  and 
Letty  and  Miss  Leech  were  at  the  other,  and  there 
was  no  one  else  in  the  compartment,  she  was  neither 
upset  by  the  too  near  contemplation  of  her  daughter, 


V  THE  BENEFACTRESS  49 

nor  by  the  aspect  of  other  travellers  lunching.  Miss 
Leech,  always  mindful  of  her  duties,  was  making  the 
most  of  her  five  hours'  journey  by  endeavouring,  in 
a  low  voice,  to  clear  away  the  haze  that  hung  in  her 
pupil's  mind  round  the  details  of  her  last  winter's 
German  studies.  "  Don't  you  remember  anything  of 
Professor  Smith's  lectures,  Letty .'' "  she  inquired. 
"  Why,  they  were  all  about  just  this  part  of  Germany, 
and  it  makes  it  so  much  more  interesting  if  one  knows 
what  happened  at  the  different  places.  Stralsund,  you 
know,  where  we  shall  be  presently,  has  had  a  most 
turbulent  and  interesting  past." 

*'  Has  it .?  "  said  Letty.  "  Well,  I  can't  help  it, 
Leechy." 

"  No,  but  my  dear,  you  should  try  to  recollect 
something  at  least  of  what  you  heard  at  the  lectures. 
Have  you  forgotten  the  paper  you  wrote  about 
Wallenstein?  " 

"  I  remember  I  did  a  paper.  Beastly  hard  it  was, 
too. 

"  Oh,  Letty,  don't  say  beastly — it  really  isn't  a 
ladylike  word." 

"  Why,  mamma's  always  saying  it." 

"  Oh,  well.  Don't  you  know  what  Wallenstein 
said  when  he  was  besieging  Stralsund  and  found  it 
such  a  difficult  task  ^  " 

"  I  suppose  he  said  too  that  it  was  beastly  hard." 

"Oh,  Letty  —  it  was  something  about  chains. 
Now  do  you  remember  '?  " 

"  Chains  .''  "  repeated  Letty,  looking  bored.  "  Do 
you  know,  Leechy  }  " 

"  Yes,  I  still  remember  that,  though  I  confess  that 
I  have  forgotten  the  greater  part  of  what  I  heard." 

"  Then  what  do  you  ask  me  for,  when  you  know 
I  don't  know  .^     What  did  he  say  about  chains  "i  " 


50  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

"  He  said  that  he'd  take  the  city,  if  it  were  riveted 
to  heaven  with  chains  of  iron,"  said  Miss  Leech 
dramatically. 

"  What  a  goat." 

"Oh,  hush  —  don't  say  those  horrible  words. 
Where  do  you  learn  them  ?  Not  from  me,  certainly 
not  from  me,"  said  Miss  Leech,  distressed.  She  had 
a  profound  horror  of  slang,  and  was  bewildered  by 
the  way  in  which  these  weeds  of  rhetoric  sprang  up 
on  all  occasions  in  Letty's  speech. 

"  Well,  and  was  it  .^" 

"  Was  it  what,  my  dear  ?  " 

"  Chained  to  heaven  ?  " 

"The  city  .''  Why,  how  can  a  city  be  chained  to 
heaven,  Letty  ? " 

"  Then  what  did  he  say  it  for  ^  " 

'*  He  was  using  a  metaphor." 

"  Oh,"  said  Letty,  who  did  not  know  what  a 
metaphor  was,  but  supposed  it  must  be  something 
used  in  sieges,  and  preferred  not  to  inquire  too 
closely. 

"  He  was  obliged  to  retire,"  said  Miss  Leech, 
"leaving  enormous  numbers  of  slain  on  the  field." 

"  Poor  beasts.  I  say,  Leechy,"  she  whispered, 
"  don't  let's  bother  about  history  now.  Go  on  with 
Mr.  Jessup.  You'd  got  to  where  he  called  you  Amy 
for  the  first  time." 

Mr.  Jessup  was  the  person  already  alluded  to  in 
these  pages  as  the  only  man  Miss  Leech  had  ever 
loved,  and  his  history  was  of  absorbing  interest  to 
Letty,  who  never  tired  of  hearing  his  first  appearance 
on  Miss  Leech's  horizon  described,  with  his  subse- 
quent advances  before  the  stage  of  open  courting 
was  reached,  the  courting  itself,  and  its  melancholy 
end  ;  for  Mr.  Jessup,  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of 


V  THE  BENEFACTRESS  51 

England,  with  a  vicarage  all  ready  to  receive  his  wife, 
had  suddenly  become  a  prey  to  new  convictions,  and 
had  gone  over  to  the  Church  of  Rome  ;  whereupon 
Miss  Leech's  father,  also  a  clergyman  of  the  Church 
of  England,  had  talked  a  great  deal  about  the  Scarlet 
Woman  of  Babylon,  and  had  shut  the  door  in  Mr. 
Jessup's  face  when  next  he  called  to  explain.  This  had 
happened  when  Miss  Leech  was  twenty.  Now,  at 
thirty,  an  orphan  resigned  to  the  world's  bufFets,  she 
found  a  gentle  consolation  in  repeating  the  story  of  her 
ill-starred  engagement  to  her  keenly  interested  friend 
and  pupil  ;  and  the  oftener  she  repeated  it  the  less 
did  it  grieve  her,  till  at  last  she  came  actually  to  en- 
joy the  remembrance  of  it,  pleased  to  have  played 
the  principal  part  even  in  a  drama  that  was  hissed  off 
her  little  stage,  glad  to  find  a  sympathetic  listener, 
dwelling  much  and  fondly  on  every  incident  of  that 
short  period  of  importance  and  glory. 

It  is  doubtful  whether  she  would  ever  have  ex- 
tracted the  same  amount  of  pleasure  from  Mr.  Jcssup 
had  he  remained  fixed  in  the  faith  of  his  fathers  and 
married  her  in  due  season.  By  his  secession  he  had 
unconsciously  become  a  sort  of  providence  to  Letty 
and  herself,  saving  them  from  endless  hours  of  dulness, 
furnishing  their  lonely  schoolroom  life  with  romance 
and  mystery  ;  and  If  in  Miss  Leech's  mind  he  gradu- 
ally took  on  the  sweet  intangibility  of  a  pleasant 
dream,  he  was  the  very  pith  and  marrow  of  Letty's 
existence.  She  glowed  and  thrilled  at  the  thought 
that  perhaps  she  too  would  one  day  have  a  Mr.  Jessup 
of  her  own,  who  would  have  convictions,  and  give  up 
everything,  herself  included,  for  what  he  believed  to 
be  right. 

As  usual,  they  at  once  became  absorbed  In  Mr. 
Jessup,  forgetting  in  the  contemplation  of  his  excel- 


52  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

lencies  everything  else  in  the  world,  till  they  were 
roused  to  realities  by  their  arrival  at  Stralsund  ;  and 
Susie,  thrusting  books  and  bags  and  umbrellas  into 
their  passive  hands,  pushed  them  out  of  the  carriage 
into  the  wet. 

Hilton,  the  maid  shared  by  Susie  and  Anna,  had 
then  to  be  found  and  urged  to  clamber  down  quickly 
on  to  the  low  platform,  where  she  stood  helplessly, 
the  picture  of  injured  superiority,  hustled  by  the 
hurrying  porters  and  passengers,  out  of  whose  way 
she  scorned  to  move,  while  Anna  went  to  look  for 
the  luggage  and  have  it  put  into  the  cart  that  had 
been  sent  for  it. 

This  cart  was  an  ordinary  farm  cart,  used  for 
bringing  in  the  hay  in  June,  but  also  used  for  carry- 
ing out  the  manure  in  November  ;  and  on  a  sack  of 
straw  lying  in  the  bottom  it  was  expected  that  Hilton 
should  sit.  The  farm  boy  who  drove  it,  and  who 
helped  the  porter  to  tie  the  trunks  to  its  sides  lest 
they  should  too  violently  bump  against  each  other 
and  Hilton  on  the  way,  said  so  ;  the  coachman  of  the 
carriage  waiting  for  the  Herrschaften  pointed  with  his 
whip  first  at  Hilton  and  then  at  the  cart,  and  said  so  ; 
the  porter,  who  seemed  to  think  it  quite  natural,  said 
so  ;  and  everybody  was  waiting  for  Hilton  to  get  in, 
who,  when  she  had  at  length  grasped  the  situation,  went 
to  Susie,  who  was  looking  frightened  and  pretending 
to  be  absorbed  by  the  sky,  and  with  a  voice  shaken 
by  passion,  and  a  face  changing  from  white  to  red, 
announced  her  intention  of  only  going  in  that  cart  as 
a  corpse,  when  they  might  do  with  her  as  they  pleased, 
but  as  a  living  body  with  breath  in  it,  never. 

Here  was  a  difficulty.  And  idlers,  whose  curiosity 
was  not  extinguishable  by  wind  and  sleet,  began  to 
press  round,  and  people  who  had  come  by  the  same 


V  THE  BENEFACTRESS  53 

train  stopped  on  their  way  out  to  listen.  The  farm 
boy  patted  the  sack  and  declared  that  it  was  clean 
straw,  the  coachman  stood  up  on  his  box  and  swore 
that  it  was  a  new  sack,  the  porter  assured  the  Frau- 
lein  that  it  was  as  comfortable  as  a  feather  bed,  and 
nobody  seemed  to  understand  that  what  she  was 
being  offered  was  an  insult. 

Susie  was  afraid  of  Hilton,  who  had  been  in  the 
service  of  duchesses,  and  who  held  these  duchesses 
over  her  mistress's  head  whenever  her  mistress  wanted 
to  do  anything  that  was  inconvenient  to  herself; 
quoting  their  sayings,  pointing  out  how  they  would 
have  acted  in  any  given  case,  and  always,  it  appeared, 
they  had  done  exactly  what  Hilton  desired.  Susie's 
admiration  for  duchesses  was  slavish,  and  Hilton  was 
treated  with  an  indulgent  liberality  that  was  absurd 
compared  to  the  stinginess  displayed  towards  every 
one  else.  Hilton  was  not  more  horrified  than  her 
mistress  when  she  saw  the  farm  cart,  and  understood 
that  it  was  for  the  luggage  and  the  maid.  It  was 
impossible  to  take  her  with  them  in  what  the  porter 
called  the  herrschaft  liche  JVagen,  for  it  was  a  kind 
of  victoria,  and  how  to  get  their  four  selves  into  it  was 
a  sufficient  puzzle.  "  What  shall  we  do  }''  said  Susie 
in  despair,  to  Anna. 

"  Do  ?  Why,  she'll  have  to  go  in  it.  Hilton, 
don't  be  a  foolish  person,  and  don't  keep  us  here  in 
the  wet.  This  isn't  England,  and  nobody  thinks 
anything  here  of  driving  in  farm  carts.  It  is 
patriarchal  simplicity,  that's  all.  People  are  staring 
at  you  now  because  you  are  making  such  a  fuss.  Get 
in  like  a  good  soul,  and  let  us  start." 

*'  Only  as  a  corpse,  m'm,"  reiterated  Hilton  with 
chattering  teeth,  "  never  as  a  living  body." 

"  Nonsense,"  said  Anna  impatiently. 


54  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

"What  shall  we  do?"  repeated  Susie.  "Poor 
Hilton — what  barbarians  they  must  be  here." 

"  We  must  send  her  in  a  Droschky^  then,  if  it  isn't 
too  far,  and  we  can  get  one  to  go." 

"  A  Droschky  all  that  distance !  It  will  be 
ruinous." 

"  Well,  we  can't  stand  here  amusing  these  people 
for  ever." 

"  Oh,  I  wish  we  had  never  come  to  this  horrible 
place  !  "  cried  Susie,  really  made  miserable  by  Hilton's 
rage. 

But  Anna  did  not  stay  to  listen  either  to  her 
laments  or  to  Hilton's  monotonous  "  Only  as  a 
corpse,  m'lady,"  and  was  already  arranging  with  an 
unwilling  driver,  who  had  no  desire  whatever  to 
drive  to  Kleinwalde,  but  consented  to  do  so  on  being 
promised  twenty  marks,  a  rest  and  feed  of  oats  for 
his  horses,  and  any  little  addition  in  the  shape  of 
refreshment  and  extra  money  that  might  suggest 
itself  to  Anna's  generosity. 

"  You  know,  Anna,  you  can't  expect  me  to  pay 
for  the  fly,"  said  Susie  uneasily,  when  the  appeased 
Hilton  had  been  put  into  it  and  was  out  of  earshot. 
"  That  dreadful  cart  is  your  property,  I  suppose." 

"Of  course  it  is,"  said  Anna,  smiling,  "and  of 
course  the  fly  is  my  affair.  How  magnificent  I  feel, 
disposing  of  carts  and  Droschkes.  Now,  will  you 
please  to  get  into  my  carriage  ^  And  do  you  observe 
the  extreme  respectfulness  of  my  coachman  ^  " 

The  coachman,  a  strange-looking,  round-shouldered 
being,  with  a  long  grizzled  beard,  a  dark-blue  cloth 
cap  on  his  head,  and  a  body  clothed  in  a  fawn-coloured 
suit  and  gaiters,  on  which  a  great  many  tarnished 
silver  buttons  adorned  with  Uncle  Joachim's  coat  of 
arms  were  fastened  at  short   intervals,  removed  his 


V  THE  BENEFACTRESS  55 

cap  while  his  new  mistress  and  her  party  were  enter- 
ing the  carriage,  and  did  not  put  it  on  again  till  they 
were  ready  to  start. 

"  Quite  as  though  we  were  royalties,"  said  Susie. 

"  But  the  rest  of  him  isn't,"  replied  Anna,  who 
was  greatly  amused  by  the  turn-out.  "  Do  you  like 
my  horses,  Susie  ?  Or  do  you  suspect  them  of  having 
been  ploughing  all  the  morning  ?  Oh,  well,"  she 
added  quickly,  ashamed  of  laughing  at  any  part  of 
her  dear  uncle's  gift,  *'  I  suppose  one  has  to  have 
heavily-built  horses  in  this  part  of  the  world,  where 
the  roads  are  probably  frightfully  bad." 

"  Their  tails  might  be  a  little  shorter,"  said  Susie. 

"  They  might,"  agreed  Anna  serenely. 

With  the  aid  of  the  porter,  who  knew  all  about 
Uncle  Joachim's  will  and  was  deeply  interested,  they 
were  at  last  somehow  packed  into  the  carriage,  and 
away  they  rattled  over  the  rough  stones,  threading 
the  outskirts  of  the  town  on  the  mainland,  the  hail 
and  wind  in  their  faces,  out  into  the  open  country, 
with  their  horses'  heads  turned  towards  the  north. 
The  fly  containing  Hilton  followed  more  leisurely 
behind,  and  the  farm  cart  containing  the  unused  sack 
of  straw  followed  the  fly. 

"We  can't  see  much  of  Stralsund,"  said  Anna, 
trying  to  peep  round  the  hood  at  the  old  town  across 
the  lakes  separating  it  from  the  mainland. 

"  It's  a  very  historical  town,"  observed  Susie,  who 
had  happened  to  notice,  as  she  idly  turned  over  the 
pages  of  her  Baedeker  on  the  way  down,  that  there 
was  a  long  description  of  it  with  dates.  "  As  of 
course  you  know,"  she  added,  turning  sharply  to  her 
daughter. 

"  Rather,"  said  Letty.  "  Wallenstein  said  he'd 
take  it  if  it  were  chained  to  heaven,  and  when  he 


S6  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

found  it  wasn't  he  was  frightfully  sick,  and  went 
away  and  left  them  all  in  the  fields." 

Miss  Leech,  who  was  on  the  little  seat,  struggling 
to  defend  herself  from  the  fury  of  the  elements  with 
an  umbrella,  looked  anxious,  but  Susie  only  said  in  a 
gratified  voice,  "  I'm  glad  you  remember  what  you've 
been  taught."  To  which  Letty,  who  was  in  great 
spirits,  and  thought  this  drive  in  the  wet  huge  fun, 
again  replied  heartily,  "Rather,"  and  her  mother 
congratulated  herself  on  having  done  the  right  thing 
in  bringing  her  to  Germany,  home  of  erudition  and 
profundity,  already  evidently  beginning  to  do  its 
work. 

The  carriage  smelt  of  fish,  which  presently  upset 
Susie,  who,  unfortunately  for  her,  had  a  nose  that 
smelt  everything.  While  they  were  in  the  town  she 
thought  the  smell  was  in  the  streets,  and  bore  it ;  but 
out  in  the  open,  where  there  was  not  a  house  to  be 
seen,  she  found  that  it  was  in  the  carriage. 

She  fidgeted,  and  looked  about,  feeling  with  her 
foot  under  the  opposite  seat,  expecting  to  find  a 
basket  somewhere,  and  determined  if  she  found  one 
to  push  it  out  quietly  and  say  nothing  ;  for  that  she 
should  drive  for  two  hours  with  her  handkerchief  up 
to  her  nose  was  more  than  anybody  could  expect  of 
her.  Already  she  had  done  more  than  anybody 
ought  to  expect  of  her,  she  reflected,  in  going  to  the 
expense  of  the  journey  and  the  inconvenience  of  the 
absence  from  home  for  Anna's  sake,  and  she  hoped 
that  Anna  felt  grateful.  She  had  never  yet  shrunk 
from  her  duty  towards  Anna,  or  indeed  from  her 
duty  towards  any  one,  and  she  was  sure  she  never 
would  ;  but  her  duty  certainly  did  not  include  the 
passive  endurance  of  offensive  smells. 

"  What  are  you  looking  for  ? "  asked  Anna. 


V  THE  BENEFACTRESS  57 

"Why,  the  fish." 

"  Oh,  do  you  smell  it  too  ? " 

"  Smell  it  ?  I  should  think  I  did.  It's  killing 
me. 

'  Oh,  poor  Susie  !  "  laughed  Anna,  who  was  pos- 
sessed by  an  uncontrollable  desire  to  laugh  at  every- 
thing. The  conveyance  (it  could  hardly  be  called  a 
carriage)  in  which  they  were  seated,  and  which  she 
supposed  was  the  one  destined  for  her  use  if  she 
Hved  at  Kleinwalde,  was  unlike  anything  she  had  yet 
seen.  It  was  very  old,  with  enormous  wheels,  and 
bumped  dreadfully,  and  the  seat  was  so  constructed 
that  she  was  continually  slipping  forward  and  having 
to  push  herself  back  again.  It  was  lined  throughout, 
including  the  hood,  with  a  white  and  black  shepherd's 
plaid  in  large  squares,  the  white  squares  mellowed  by 
the  stains  of  use  and  time  to  varying  shades  of  brown 
and  yellow  ;  when  Miss  Leech's  umbrella  was  blown 
aside  by  a  gust  of  wind  Anna  could  see  her  coach- 
man's drab  coat,  with  a  little  end  of  white  tape  that 
he  had  forgotten  to  tie,  and  whose  uses  she  was 
unable  to  guess,  fluttering  gaily  between  its  tails  in 
the  wind  ;  on  the  left  side  of  the  box  was  a  very  big 
and  gorgeous  coat  of  arms  in  green  and  white.  Uncle 
Joachim's  colours  ;  and  whichever  way  she  turned 
her  head,  there  was  the  overpowering  smell  of  fish. 
"  We  must  be  taking  our  dinner  home  with  us,"  she 
said,  "  but  I  don't  see  it  anywhere." 

"  There  isn't  anything  under  the  seats.  Perhaps 
the  man  has  got  it  on  the  box.  Ask  him,  Anna ;  I 
really  can't  stand  it." 

Anna  did  not  quite  know  how  to  attract  his  atten- 
tion. It  seemed  undignified  to  poke  him,  but  she 
did  not  know  his  name,  and  the  wind  blew  her  voice 
back    in   the   direction   of  Stralsund  when   she   had 


58  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

cleared  it,  and  coughed,  and  called  out  rather  shyly, 
"  Oh,  Kutscher !  Kutscher  !  " 

Then  she  remembered  that  oh  was  not  German, 
and  that  Uncle  Joachim  had  used  sonorous  achs  in 
its  place,  and  she  began  again,  '■'■  Ach^  Kutscher  I 
Kutscher  I " 

Letty  giggled.  "Go  it,  Aunt  Anna,"  she  said 
encouragingly,  "  dig  him  in  the  ribs  with  your 
umbrella — or  I  will,  if  you  like." 

Her  mother,  with  her  handkerchief  to  her  nose, 
exhorted  her  not  to  be  vulgar.  Letty  explained  at 
some  length  that  she  was  only  being  nice,  and  offer- 
ing assistance. 

"  I  really  shall  have  to  poke  him,"  said  Anna,  her 
faint  cries  of  Kutscher  quite  lost  in  the  rattling  of  the 
carriage  and  the  howling  of  the  wind.  "  Or  perhaps 
you  would  touch  his  arm.  Miss  Leech." 

Miss  Leech  turned,  and  very  gingerly  touched  his 
sleeve.  He  at  once  whistled  to  his  horses,  who 
stopped  dead,  snatched  off  his  cap,  and  looking 
down  at  Anna  inquired  her  commands. 

It  was  done  so  quickly  that  Anna,  whose  conversa- 
tional German  was  exceedingly  rusty,  was  quite  un- 
able to  remember  the  word  for  fish,  and  sat  looking 
up  at  him  helplessly,  while  she  vainly  searched  her 
brains. 

"What  is  fish  in  German.^"  she  said,  appealing 
to  Susie,  distressed  that  the  man  should  be  waiting 
capless  in  the  rain. 

"Letty,  what's  the  word  for  fish.''"  inquired 
Susie  sternly. 

"  Fish  .'' "  repeated  Letty,  looking  stupid. 

"  Fish  } "  echoed  Miss  Leech,  trying  to  help. 

"  Fisch  ?  "  said  the  coachman  himself,  catching  at 
the  word. 


V  THE  BENEFACTRESS  59 

"  Oh  yes  ;  how  utterly  silly  I  am,"  cried  Anna 
blushing  and  showing  her  dimples,  "  it's  Fisch^  of 
course.     Kutscher^  wo  ist  Fisch  ?  " 

The  man  looked  blank  ;  then  his  face  brightened, 
and  pointing  with  his  whip  to  the  rolling  sea  on  their 
right,  visible  across  the  flat  intervening  fields,  he  said 
that  there  was  much  fish  in  it,  especially  herrings. 

"What  does  he  say.^"  asked  Susie  from  behind 
her  handkerchief. 

"  He  says  there  are  herrings  in  the  sea." 

"  Is  the  man  a  fool }  " 

Letty  laughed  uproariously.  The  coachman, 
seeing  Letty  and  Anna  laugh,  thought  he  must  have 
said  the  right  thing  after  all,  and  looked  very 
pleasant. 

"  Aber  im  Wagen^''  persisted  Anna,  *■'■  wo  ist  Fisch 
im  Wagen  ?  " 

The  coachman  stared.  Then  he  said  vaguely.  In 
a  soothing  voice,  not  in  the  least  knowing  what  she 
meant,  "  Nein^  nem,  gnddiges  Frdulein^'  and  evi- 
dently hoped  she  would  be  satisfied. 

'•'■Aber  es  riecht^  es  riecht ! ''  cried  Anna,  not 
satisfied  at  all,  and  lifting  up  her  nose  in  unmis- 
takeable  displeasure. 

His  face  brightened  again.  "  Ach  so — -Jawo/il, 
Jawo/i/,''  he  exclaimed  cheerfully  ;  and  hastened  to 
explain  that  there  were  no  fish  nearer  than  the  sea, 
but  that  the  grease  he  had  used  that  morning  to 
make  the  leather  of  the  hood  and  apron  shine 
certainly  had  a  fishy  smell,  as  he  himself  had  noticed. 
*'The  gracious  Miss  loves  not  the  smell  .^"  he 
inquired  anxiously  ;  for  he  had  seven  children,  and 
was  very  desirous  that  his  new  mistress  should  be 
pleased. 

Anna  laughed   and   shook  her  head,  and  though 


6o  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

she  said  with  great  emphasis  that  she  did  not  love  it 
at  all,  she  looked  so  friendly  that  he  felt  reassured. 

"  What  does  he  say  ?  "  asked  Susie. 

"  Why,  I'm  afraid  we  shall  have  it  all  the  way. 
It's  the  grease  he's  been  rubbing  the  leather  with." 

"  Barbarian !  "  cried  Susie  angrily,  feeling  sick 
already,  and  certain  that  she  would  be  quite  ill  by  the 
end  of  the  drive.  "  And  you  laugh  at  him  and 
encourage  him,  instead  of  taking  up  your  position  at 
once  and  showing  him  that  you  won't  stand  any 
nonsense.  He  ought  to  be — to  be  unboxed  ! "  she 
added  in  great  wrath  ;  for  she  had  heard  of  delinquent 
clergymen  being  unfrocked,  and  why  should  not 
delinquent  coachmen  be  unboxed  ? 

Anna  laughed  again.  She  tried  not  to,  but  she 
could  not  help  it;  and  Susie,  made  still  more  angry 
by  this  childish  behaviour,  sulked  during  the  rest  of 
the  drive. 

"  Go  on — avanti  !  "  said  Anna,  who  knew  hardly 
any  Italian,  and  when  she  was  in  Italy  and  wanted 
her  words  never  could  find  them,  but  had  been 
troubled  the  last  two  days  by  the  way  in  which  these 
words  came  to  her  lips  every  time  she  opened  them 
to  speak  German. 

The  coachman  understood  her,  however,  and  they 
went  on  again  along  the  straight  high-road,  that 
stretched  away  before  them  to  a  distant  bend.  The 
high-road, or  chaussee^was  planted  on  either  side  with 
maples,  and  between  the  maples  big  whitewashed 
stones  had  been  set  to  mark  the  way  at  night,  and 
behind  the  rows  of  trees  and  stones,  ditches  had  been 
dug  parallel  with  the  road  as  a  protection  to  the  crops 
in  summer  from  the  possible  wanderings  of  erring 
carts.  If  a  cart  erred,  it  tumbled  into  the  ditch. 
The  arrangement  was  simple  and  efficacious.     On  the 


V  THE  BENEFACTRESS  6i 

right,  across  some  marshy  land,  they  could  see  the 
sea  for  a  little  while,  with  the  flat  coast  of  Riigen 
opposite  ;  and  then  some  rising  ground,  bare  of  trees 
and  brilliantly  green  with  winter  corn,  hid  it  from 
view.  On  the  left  was  the  dreary  plain,  dotted  at 
long  intervals  with  farms  and  their  little  groups  of 
trees,  and  here  and  there  with  windmills  working 
furiously  in  the  gale.  The  wind  was  icy,  and  the 
December  snow  still  lay  in  drifts  in  the  ditches.  In 
that  leaden  landscape,  made  up  of  grey  and  brown 
and  black,  the  patches  of  winter  rye  were  quite 
startling  in  their  greenness, 

Susie  thought  it  the  most  God-forsaken  country 
she  had  ever  seen,  and  expressed  this  opinion  plainly 
on  her  face  and  in  her  attitudes  without  any  need  for 
opening  her  lips,  shuddering  back  ostentatiously  into 
her  corner,  wrapping  herself  with  elaborate  care  in 
her  furs,  and  behaving  as  slaves  to  duty  sometimes 
do  when  the  paths  they  have  to  tread  are  rough. 

After  driving  along  the  chaussee  for  about  an 
hour,  they  passed  a  big  house  standing  among  trees 
back  from  the  road  on  the  right,  and  a  little  farther 
on  came  to  a  small  village.  The  carriage  pulled  up 
with  a  jerk,  and  looking  eagerly  round  the  hood 
Anna  found  they  had  come  to  a  standstill  in  front  of 
a  new  red-brick  building,  whose  steps  were  crowded 
with  children.  Two  or  three  men  and  some  women 
were  with  the  children.  Two  of  the  men  appeared 
to  be  clergymen,  and  the  elder,  a  middle-aged,  mild- 
faced  man,  came  down  the  steps,  and  bowing  pro- 
foundly proceeded  to  welcome  Anna  solemnly,  on 
behalf  of  those  children  from  Kleinwalde  who  attended 
this  school,  to  her  new  home.  He  concluded  that 
Anna  was  the  person  to  be  welcomed  because  he 
could  see  nothing  of  the  lady  in  the  other  corner  but 


62  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

her  eyes,  and  they  looked  anything  but  friendly ; 
whereas  the  young  lady  on  the  left  was  leaning  for- 
ward and  smiling  and  holding  out  her  hand. 

He  took  it,  and  shook  it  slowly  up  and  down, 
while  he  begged  her  to  allow  the  hood  of  the  carriage 
to  be  put  back,  so  that  the  children  from  her  village, 
who  had  walked  three  miles  to  welcome  her,  might 
be  able  to  see  her  ;  and  on  Anna's  readily  agreeing  to 
this,  himself  helped  the  coachman  with  his  own 
white -gloved  hands  to  put  it  down.  Susie  was 
therefore  exposed  to  the  full  fury  of  the  blast,  and 
shrank  still  farther  into  her  corner — an  interesting 
and  tantalising  object  to  the  school-children,  a  dark, 
mysterious  combination  of  fur,  cocks'  feathers,  and 
black  eyebrows. 

Then  the  clergyman,  hat  in  hand,  made  a  speech. 
He  spoke  distinctly,  as  one  accustomed  to  speaking 
often  and  long,  and  Anna  understood  every  word. 
She  was  wholly  taken  aback  by  these  ceremonies,  and 
had  no  idea  of  what  she  should  say  in  reply,  but  sat 
smiling  vaguely  at  him,  looking  very  pretty  and  very 
shy.  She  soon  found  that  her  smiles  were  in- 
appropriate, and  they  died  away  ;  for,  warming  as  he 
proceeded,  the  parson,  it  appeared,  was  taking  it  for 
granted  that  she  intended  to  live  on  her  property, 
and  was  eloquently  descanting  on  the  comfort  she 
was  going  to  be  to  the  poor,  assuring  those  present 
that  she  would  be  a  mother  to  the  sick,  nursing  them 
with  her  tender  woman's  hands,  an  angel  of  mercy  to 
the  hungry,  feeding  them  in  the  hour  of  their  distress, 
a  friend  and  sister  to  the  little  children,  succouring 
them,  caring  for  them,  pitiful  of  their  weakness  and 
their  sins.  His  face  lit  up  with  enthusiasm  as  he 
went  on,  and  Anna  was  thankful  that  Susie  could  not 
understand.     This  crowd  of  children,  the  women,  the 


V  THE  BENEFACTRESS  63 

young  parson,  her  coachman,  were  all  hearing 
promises  made  on  her  behalf  that  she  had  no  thought 
of  fulfiUing.  She  looked  down,  and  twisted  her 
fingers  about  nervously,  and  felt  uncomfortable. 

At  the  end  of  his  speech,  the  parson,  his  eyes  full 
of  the  tears  drawn  forth  by  his  own  eloquence,  held 
up  his  hand  and  solemnly  blessed  her,  rounding  off 
his  blessing  with  a  loud  Amen,  after  which  there  was 
an  awkward  pause.  Susie  heard  the  Amen,  and 
guessed  that  something  in  the  nature  of  a  blessing 
was  beinor  invoked,  and  made  a  movement  of  im- 
patience.  The  parson  was  odious  in  her  eyes,  first 
because  he  looked  like  the  ministers  of  the  Baptist 
chapels  of  her  unmarried  youth,  but  principally 
because  he  was  keeping  her  there  in  the  gale  and 
prolonging  the  tortures  she  was  enduring  from  the 
smell  of  fish.  Anna  did  not  know  what  to  say  after 
the  Amen,  and  looked  up  more  shyly  than  ever,  and 
stammered  in  her  confusion  Danke  sehr,  hoping  that 
it  was  a  proper  remark  to  make  ;  whereupon  the 
parson  bowed  again,  as  one  who  should  say  Pray 
don't  mention  it.  Then  another  man,  evidently  the 
schoolmaster,  took  out  a  tuning-fork,  gave  out  a 
note,  and  the  children  sang  a  chorale^  following  it  up 
with  other  more  cheerful  songs,  in  which  the  words 
Friihling  and  Willkommen  were  repeated  a  great  many 
times,  while  the  wind  howled  flattest  contradiction. 

When  this  was  over,  the  parson  begged  leave  to 
introduce  the  other  clerical-looking  person,  a  tall 
narrow  youth,  also  in  white  kid  gloves,  buttoned  up 
tightly  in  a  long  coat  of  broadcloth,  with  a  pallid 
face  and  thick,  upright  flaxen  hair. 

"  Herr  Vicar  Klutz,"  said  the  elder  parson,  with 
a  wave  of  the  hand  ;  and  the  Herr  Vicar,  making  his 
bow,  and  having  his  limp  hand  heartily  grasped  by 


64  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

that  other  little  hand,  and  his  furtive  eyes  smiled 
into  by  those  other  friendly  eyes,  became  on  the 
spot  desperately  enamoured  ;  which  was  very  natural, 
seeing  that  he  had  not  spoken  to  a  woman  under 
forty  for  six  months,  and  was  himself  twenty  and  a 
poet.  He  spent  the  rest  of  the  afternoon  shut  up 
in  his  bedroom,  where,  refusing  all  nourishment,  he 
composed  a  poem  in  which  berauschten  Sinn  was 
made  to  rhyme  with  Engldnderin^  while  the  elder 
parson,  in  whose  house  he  lived,  thought  he  was 
writing  his  Good  Friday  sermon. 

Then  the  schoolmaster  was  introduced,  and  then 
came  the  two  women — the  schoolmaster's  wife  and 
the  parson's  wife  ;  and  when  Anna  had  smiled  and 
murmured  polite  and  incoherent  little  speeches  to 
each  in  turn,  and  had  nodded  and  bowed  at  least  a 
dozen  times  to  each  of  these  ladies,  who  could  by 
no  means  have  done  with  their  curtseys,  and  had  in- 
troduced them  to  the  dumb  figure  in  the  corner, 
during  which  ceremonies  Letty  stared  round-eyed  and 
open-mouthed  at  the  school-children,  and  the  school- 
children stared  round-eyed  and  open-mouthed  at 
Letty,  and  Miss  Leech  looked  demure,  and  Susie's 
brows  were  contracted  by  suffering,  she  wondered 
whether  she  might  not  now  with  propriety  continue 
her  journey,  and  if  so  whether  it  were  expected  that 
she  should  give  the  signal. 

Everybody  was  smiling  at  everybody  else  by  way 
of  filling  up  this  pause  of  hesitation,  except  Susie, 
who  shut  her  eyes  with  great  dignity,  and  shivered 
in  so  marked  a  manner  that  the  parson  himself 
came  to  the  rescue,  and  bade  the  coachman  help  him 
put  up  the  hood  again,  explaining  to  Anna  as  he 
did  so  that  her  Frau  Schwesler  was  not  used  to  the 
climate. 


V  THE  BENEFACTRESS  65 

Evidently  the  moment  had  come  for  going  on, 
and  the  bows  that  had  but  just  left  off  began  again 
with  renewed  vigour,  Anna  was  anxious  to  say 
something  pleasant  at  the  finish,  so  she  asked  the 
parson's  wife,  as  she  bade  her  good-bye,  whether  she 
and  her  husband  would  come  to  Kieinwalde  the  next 
day  to  dinner. 

This  invitation  produced  a  very  deep  curtsey  and 
a  flush  of  gratification,  but  the  recipient  turned  to 
her  lord  before  accepting  it,  to  inquire  his  pleasure. 

"  I  fear  not  to-morrow,  gracious  Miss,"  said  the 
parson,  "  for  it  is  Good  Friday." 

"  y^ch  Jay''  stammered  Anna,  ashamed  of  herself 
for  having  forgotten. 

"  Ack  ja,''  exclaimed  the  parson's  wife,  still  more 
ashamed  of  herself  for  having  forgotten. 

"Perhaps  Saturday,  then.?  "  suggested  Anna, 

The  parson  murmured  something  about  quiet 
hours  preparatory  to  the  Sabbath  ;  but  his  wife,  a 
person  who  struck  Anna  as  being  quite  extraordin- 
arily stout,  was  burning  with  curiosity  to  examine 
those  foreign  ladies  more  conveniently,  and  especially 
to  see  what  manner  of  being  would  emerge  from 
the  pile  of  fur  and  feathers  in  the  corner  ;  and 
she  urged  him,  in  a  rapid  aside,  to  do  for  once 
without  quiet  hours.  Whereupon  he  patted  her  on 
the  cheek,  smiled  indulgently,  and  said  he  would 
make  an  exception  and  do  himself  the  honour  of 
appearing. 

This  being  settled,  Anna  said  Gehen  Sie  to  her 
coachman,  who  again  showed  his  intelligence  by 
understanding  her  ;  and  in  a  cloud  of  smiles  and  bows 
they  drove  away,  the  school-girls  making  curtseys, 
the  schoolboys  taking  ofF  their  caps,  and  the  parson 
standing  hat  in  hand  with  his  arm  round  his  wife's 

F 


66  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

waist  as  serenely  as  though  it  had  been  a  summer's 
day  and  no  one  looking. 

Anna  became  used  to  these  displays  of  conjugal 
regard  in  public  later  on  ;  but  this  first  time  she 
turned  to  Susie  with  a  laugh,  when  the  hood  had 
hidden  the  group  from  view,  and  asked  her  if  she 
had  seen  it.  But  Susie  had  seen  nothing,  for  her 
eyes  were  shut,  and  she  refused  to  answer  any  ques- 
tions otherwise  than  by  a  feeble  shake  of  the  head. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  village  the  chaussee  came 
to  an  end,  and  two  deep,  sandy  roads  took  its  place. 
There  was  a  sign-post  at  their  junction,  one  arm  of 
which,  pointing  to  the  right-hand  road  that  ran  down 
close  to  the  sea,  had  Kleinwalde  scrawled  on  it  ;  and 
beside  this  sign-post  a  man  on  a  horse  was  waiting 
for  them. 

"Good  gracious!  More  rot.''"  ejaculated  Susie 
as  the  carriage  stopped  again,  shaken  out  of  the 
dignity  of  sulks  by  these  repeated  shocks. 

"  Oberinspector  Dellwig,"  said  the  man,  introducing 
himself,  and  sweeping  off  his  hat  and  bowing  lower 
and  more  obsequiously  than  any  one  had  yet  done. 

"  This  must  be  the  inspector  Uncle  Joachim  hoped 
I'd  keep,"  said  Anna  in  an  undertone. 

*'  I  don't  care  who  he  is,  but  for  heaven's  sake 
don't  let  him  make  a  speech.  I  can't  stand  this  sort 
of  thing  any  longer.  You'll  have  me  ill  on  your 
hands  if  you're  not  careful,  and  you  won't  like  that^ 
so  you  had  better  stop  him." 

"  I  can't  stop  him,"  said  Anna,  perplexed.  She 
also  had  had  enough  of  speeches. 

"  Gestatten  gnadiges  Frdulein  dass  ich  meine  gehor- 
samste  Ehrerbietung  ausspreche^''  began  the  glib  in- 
spector, bowing  at  every  second  word  over  his  horse's 
ears. 


V  THE  BENEFACTRESS  67 

There  was  no  escape,  and  they  had  to  hear  him 
out.  The  man  had  prepared  his  speech,  and  say  it 
he  would.  It  was  not  so  long  as  the  parson's,  but 
was  quite  as  flowery  in  another  way,  overflowing 
with  respectful  allusions  to  the  deceased  master,  and 
with  expressions  of  unbounded  loyalty,  obedience, 
and  devotion  to  the  new  mistress. 

Susie  shut  her  eyes  again  when  she  found  he  was 
not  to  be  stopped,  and  gave  herself  up  for  lost. 
What  could  Hilton,  who  must  be  close  behind  wait- 
ing in  the  cold,  uncomforted  by  any  food  since  leaving 
Berlin,  think  of  all  this  ?  Susie  dreaded  the  moment 
when  she  would  have  to  face  her. 

The  inspector  finished  all  he  had  intended  saying, 
and  then,  assuming  a  more  colloquial  tone,  informed 
Anna  that  from  the  sign-post  onward  she  would  be 
driving  through  her  own  property,  and  asked  per- 
mission to  ride  by  her  side  the  rest  of  the  way.  So 
they  had  his  company  for  the  last  two  miles  and  his 
conversation,  of  which  there  was  much  ;  for  he  had  a 
ready  tongue,  and  explained  things  to  Anna  in  a  very 
loud  voice  as  they  went  along,  expatiating  on  the 
magnificence  of  the  crops  the  previous  summer,  and 
assuring  her  that  the  crops  of  the  coming  summer 
would  be  even  more  magnificent,  for  he  had  invented 
a  combination  of  manures  which  would  give  such 
results  that  all  Pomerania's  breath  would  be  taken 
away. 

The  road  here  was  terrible,  and  the  horses  could 
hardly  drag  the  carriage  through  the  sand.  It  lurched 
and  heaved  from  side  to  side,  creaking  and  groaning 
alarmingly.  Miss  Leech  was  in  imminent  peril. 
Anna  held  on  with  both  hands,  and  hardly  had  leisure 
to  put  in  appropriate  ac/is  ^.ndjas  and  questions  of  a 
becoming  intelligence  when  the  inspector  paused  to 


68  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

take  breath.  She  did  not  like  his  looks,  and  wished 
that  she  could  follow  Susie's  example  and  avoid  the 
necessity  of  seeing  him  by  the  simple  expedient  of 
shutting  her  eyes.  But  somehow,  she  did  not  quite 
know  how,  responsibilities  and  obligations  were 
suddenly  pressing  heavily  upon  her.  These  people 
had  all  made  up  their  minds  that  she  was  going  to 
be  and  do  certain  things  ;  and  though  she  assured 
herself  that  it  did  not  in  the  least  matter  how  they 
had  made  up  their  minds,  yet  she  felt  obliged  to 
behave  in  the  way  that  was  expected  of  her.  She  did 
not  want  to  talk  to  this  unpleasant-looking  man,  and 
what  he  told  her  about  the  crops  and  their  marvellous- 
ness  was  half  unintelligible  to  her  and  wholly  a  bore. 
Yet  she  did  talk  to  him,  and  looked  friendly,  and 
affected  to  understand  and  be  deeply  interested  in  all 
he  said. 

They  passed  through  a  plantation  of  young  beeches, 
planted,  Dellwig  explained,  by  Uncle  Joachim  on  his 
last  visit  ;  and  after  a  few  more  yards  of  lurching  in 
the  sand  came  to  some  woods  and  got  on  to  a  fair 
road. 

"  The  park,"  said  Dellwig  superbly,  with  a  wave 
of  the  hand. 

Susie  opened  her  eyes  at  the  word  park,  and  looked 
about.  "It  isn't  a  park,"  she  said  peevishly  ;  "  it's  a 
forest — a  horrid,  gloomy,  damp  wilderness." 

"Oh,  it's  lovely!  "  cried  Letty,  giving  a  jump  of 
delight  as  she  peered  down  the  serried  ranks  of  pine 
trees. 

It  was  a  thick  wood  of  pines  and  beeches,  railed 
off  from  the  road  on  either  side  by  wooden  rails 
painted  in  black  and  white  stripes.  Uncle  Joachim 
had  been  the  loyalest  of  Prussians,  and  his  loyalty 
overflowed  even  into  his  fences,     i^sthetic  instincts 


V  THE  BENEFACTRESS  69 

he  had  none,  and  if  he  had  been  brought  to  see  it, 
would  not  have  cared  at  all  that  the  railings  made 
the  otherwise  beautiful  avenue  look  like  the  entrance 
to  a  restaurant  or  a  railway  station.  The  stripes, 
renewed  every  year,  and  of  startling  distinctness, 
were  an  outward  and  visible  sign  of  his  staunch  devo- 
tion to  the  King  of  Prussia,  the  very  lining  of  the 
carnage  with  its  white  and  black  squares  was  symbolic; 
and  when  they  came  to  the  gate  within  which  the 
house  itself  stood,  two  Prussian  ea2;les  frowned  down 
at  them  from  the  gate-posts. 


CHAPTER   VI 

A  LOW,  white,  two-storied  house,  separated  from  the 
forest  only  by  a  circular  grass  plot  and  a  ditch  with 
half-melted  snow  in  it  and  muddy  water,  a  house 
apparently  quite  by  itself  among  the  creaking  pines, 
neither  very  old  nor  very  new,  with  a  great  many 
windows,  and  a  brown-tiled  roof,  was  the  home 
bestowed  by  Uncle  Joachim  on  his  dear  and  only 
niece  Anna. 

"So  this  is  where  I  was  to  lead  the  better  life?" 
she  thought,  as  the  carriage  drew  up  at  the  door, 
and  the  moaning  of  the  uneasy  trees,  and  all  the 
lonely  sounds  of  a  storm-beaten  forest  replaced  the 
rattling  of  the  wheels  in  her  ears.  "  The  better  life, 
then,    is    a    life    of   utter   solitude.    Uncle   Joachim 

thought  ?    I  wish  I  knew — I  wish  I  knew "    But 

what  it  was  she  wished  she  knew  was  hardly  clear  in 
her  mind  ;  and  her  thoughts  were  interrupted  by  a 
very  untidy,  surprised-looking  maid-servant,  capless, 
and  in  felt  slippers,  who  had  darted  down  the  steps 
and  was  unfastening  the  leather  apron  and  pulling 
out  the  rugs  with  hasty,  agitated  hands,  and  trying 
to  pull  Susie  out  as  well. 

The  doorway  was  garlanded  with  evergreen 
wreaths,  over  which  a  green  and  white  flag  flapped ; 
and   curtseying    and    smiling    beneath    the    wreaths 


CHAP.  VI        THE  BENEFACTRESS  71 

stood  Dellwig's  wife,  a  short  kdy  with  smooth  hair, 
weather-beaten  face,  and  brown  siJk  gloves,  who 
would  have  been  the  stoutest  person  Anna  had  ever 
seen  if  she  had  not  just  come  from  the  presence 
of  the  parson's  wife. 

"  I  never  saw  so  many  bows  in  my  life,"  grumbled 
Susie,  pushing  the  servant  aside,  and  getting  out 
cautiously,  feeling  very  stiff  and  cold  and  miserable. 
"  Letty,  you  are  on  my  dress — oh,  how  d'you  do 
—  how  d'you  do,"  she  murmured  frostily,  as  the 
Frau  Inspector  seized  her  hand  and  began  to  talk 
German  to  her.  "  Anna,  are  you  coming  .''  This — 
er — person  thinks  I'm  you,  and  is  making  me  a 
speech." 

Dellwig,  who  had  sent  his  horse  away  in  charge 
of  a  small  boy,  rapidly  explained  to  his  wife  that 
the  young  lady  now  getting  out  of  the  carriage  was 
their  late  master's  niece,  and  that  the  other  one  must 
be  the  sister-in-law  mentioned  in  the  lawyer's  letter  ; 
upon  which  Frau  Dellwig  let  Susie  go,  and  trans- 
ferred her  smiles  and  welcome  to  Anna.  Susie  went 
into  the  house  to  get  out  of  the  cold,  only  to  find 
herself  in  a  square  hall  whose  iciness  was  the  intoler- 
able iciness  of  a  place  in  which  no  sun  had  been 
allowed  to  shine  and  no  windows  had  been  opened 
for  summers  without  number.  When  Uncle  Joachim 
came  down  he  lived  in  two  rooms  at  the  back  of  the 
house,  with  a  door  leading  into  the  garden  through 
which  he  went  to  the  farm,  and  the  hall  had  never 
been  used,  and  the  closed  shutters  never  opened. 
There  was  no  fireplace,  or  stove,  or  heating  arrange- 
ment of  any  sort.  Glass  doors  divided  it  from  an 
inner  and  still  more  spacious  hall,  with  a  wide  wooden 
staircase,  and  doors  all  round  it.  The  walls  in  both 
halls  were  painted  grass  green ;  and  from  little  chains 


72  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

in  the  ceiling  stuffed  hawks  and  eagles,  shot  by 
Uncle  Joachim,  and  grown  with  years  very  dusty 
and  moth-eaten,  hung  swinging  in  the  draught.  The 
floor  was  boarded,  and  was  still  damp  from  a  recent 
scrubbing.  There  was  no  carpet.  A  wooden  bracket 
on  the  wall,  with  brass  hooks,  held  a  large  assort- 
ment of  whips  and  hunting  crops  ;  and  in  one 
corner  stood  an  arrangement  for  coats,  with  Uncle 
Joachim's  various  waterproofs  and  head -coverings 
hanging  monumentally  on  its  pegs. 

"  Oh,  how  dreadful ! "  thought  Susie,  shivering 
more  violently  than  ever.  "And  what  a  musty 
smell — it's  damp,  of  course,  and  I  shall  be  laid  up. 
Poor  Hilton !  What  will  she  think  of  this .?  Oh, 
how  d'you  do,"  she  added  aloud,  as  a  female  figure 
in  a  white  apron  suddenly  emerged  from  the  gloom 
and  took  her  hand  and  kissed  it  ;  "  Anna,  who's 
this  ?  Anna  !  Aren't  you  coming  .''  Here's  some- 
body kissing  my  hand." 

"  It's  the  cook,"  said  Anna,  coming  into  the 
inner  hall  with  the  others,  Dellwig  and  his  wife 
keeping  one  on  either  side  of  her,  and  both  talking 
at  once  in  their  anxiety  to  make  a  good  impression. 

"  The  cook .''  Then  tell  her  to  give  us  some 
food.  I  shall  die  if  I  don't  have  something  soon. 
Do  you  know  what  time  it  is.''  Past  four.  Can't 
you  get  rid  of  these  people  ^     And  where's  Hilton?" 

Susie  hardly  seemed  to  see  the  Dellwigs,  and. 
talked  to  Anna  while  they  were  talking  to  her  as 
though  they  did  not  exist.  If  Anna  felt  an  obliga- 
tion to  be  polite  to  these  different  persons  she  felt 
none  at  all.  They  did  not  understand  English,  but 
if  they  had  it  would  not  have  mattered  to  her,  and 
she  would  have  gone  on  talking  about  them  as 
though  they  had  not  been  there. 


VI  THE  BENEFACTRESS  73 

Both  the  Dellwigs  had  very  loud  voices,  so  Susie 
had  to  raise  hers  in  order  to  be  heard,  and  there 
was  consequently  such  a  noise  in  the  empty,  echoing 
house,  that  after  looking  round  bewildered,  and 
trying  to  answer  everybody  at  once,  Anna  gave  it 
up,  and  stood  and  laughed. 

"  I  don't  see  anything   to   laugh  at,"    said    Susie 

crossly  ;   "  we  are  all  starving,  and  these  people  won't 
>> 

"  But  how  can  I  make  them  go? " 

"  They're  your  servants,  I  suppose.  I  should  just 
say  that  I'd  send  for  them  when  I  wanted  them." 

"  They'd  be  very  much  astonished.  The  man  is 
so  far  from  being  my  servant  that  I  believe  he 
means  to  be  my  master." 

The  two  Dellwigs,  perplexed  by  Anna's  laughter 
when  nobody  had  said  anything  amusing,  and  uneasy 
lest  she  should  be  laughing  at  something  about 
themselves,  looked  from  her  to  Susie  suspiciously, 
and  for  that  brief  moment  were  quiet. 

"  JVir  sind  hungrig^''  said  Anna  to  the  wife. 

"The  food  comes  immediately,"  she  replied  ;  and 
hastened  away  with  the  cook  and  the  other  servant 
through  a  door  evidently  leading  to  the  kitchen. 

"  Und  kalt^''  continued  Anna  plaintively  to  the 
husband,  who  at  once  flung  open  another  door, 
through  which  they  saw  a  table  spread  for  dinner. 
"  Bitte^  hitte^''  he  said,  ushering  them  in  as  though 
the  place  belonged  to  him. 

"  Does  this  person  live  in  the  house.''"  inquired 
Susie,  eyeing  him  with  little  goodwill." 

"  He  told  me  he  lives  at  the  farm.  But  of 
course  he  has  always  looked  after  everything  here." 

When  they  were  all  in  the  dining-room,  driven 
in  by    Dellwig,  as  Susie  remarked,   like  a  flock  of 


74  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

sheep  by  a  shepherd  determined  to  stand  no  non- 
sense, he  helped  them  with  officious  poHteness  to 
take  off  their  wraps,  and  then,  bowing  almost  to 
the  ground,  asked  permission  to  withdraw  while  the 
Herrschaften  ate — a  permission  that  was  given  with 
alacrity,  Anna's  face  falling,  however,  upon  his  in- 
forming her  that  he  would  come  round  later  on  in 
order  to  lay  his  plans  for  the  summer  before  her. 

"What  does  he  say?"  asked  Susie,  as  the  door 
shut  behind  him. 

"  He's  coming  round  again  later  on." 

"  That  man's  going  to  be  a  nuisance — you  see  if 
he  isn't,"  said  Susie  with  conviction. 

"I  believe  he  is,"  agreed  Anna,  going  over  to  the 
white  porcelain  stove  to  warm  her  hands. 

"  He's  the  limpet,  and  you're  going  to  be  the 
rock.     Don't  let  him  fleece  you  too  much." 

"  But  limpets  don't  fleece  rocks,"  said  Anna. 

"  He  wouldn't  be  able  to  fleece  me,  /  know, 
if  I  could  talk  German  as  well  as  you  do.  But  you'll 
be  soft  and  weak  and  amiable,  and  he'll  do  as  he 
likes  with  you." 

"  Soft,  and  weak,  and  amiable!"  repeated  Anna, 
smiling  at  Susie's  adjectives,  "  Why,  I  thought  I  was 
obstinate — you  always  said  I  was." 

"  So  you  are.  But  you  won't  be  to  that  man. 
He'll  get  round  you." 

"  Uncle  Joachim  said  he  was  excellent." 

"  Oh,  I  daresay  he  wasn't  bad  with  a  man  over 
him  who  knew  all  about  farming,  but  mark  my 
words,  you  won't  get  two  thousand  a  year  out  of  the 
place." 

Anna  was  silent.  Susie  was  invariably  shrewd 
and  sensi'ble,  if  inclined,  Anna  thought,  to  be  over 
suspicious,  in  matters  where  money  was   concerned. 


VI  THE  BENEFACTRESS  75 

DeJlwig's  face  was  not  one  to  inspire  confidence : 
and  his  way  of  shouting  when  he  talked,  and  of 
talking  incessantly,  was  already  intolerable  to  her. 
She  was  not  sure,  either,  that  his  wife  was  any  more 
satisfactory.  She  too  shouted,  and  Anna  detested 
noise.  The  wife  did  not  appear  again,  and  had 
evidently  gone  home  with  her  husband,  for  a  great 
silence  had  fallen  upon  the  house,  broken  only  by 
the  monotonous  sighing  of  the  forest,  and  the  patter- 
ing of  rain  against  the  window. 

The  dining-room  was  a  long  narrow  room,  with 
one  big  window  forming  its  west  end,  looking  out 
on  to  the  grass  plot,  the  ditch,  and  the  gate-posts 
with  the  eagles  on  them.  It  was  a  study  in  choco- 
late— brown  paper,  brown  carpet,  brown  rep  curtains, 
brown  cane  chairs.  There  were  two  wooden  side- 
boards painted  brown  facing  each  other  down  at  the 
dark  end,  with  a  collection  of  miscellaneous  articles 
on  them  :  a  vinegar  cruet  that  had  stood  there  for 
years,  with  remains  of  vinegar  dried  up  at  the 
bottom  ;  mustard  pots  containing  a  dark  and  wicked 
mixture  that  had  once  been  mustard  ;  a  broken 
hand -bell  used  at  long -past  dinners,  to  summon 
servants  long  since  dead  ;  an  old  wine  register  with 
entries  in  it  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  back  ;  a 
mouldy  bottle  of  Worcester  sauce,  still  boasting  on 
its  label  that  it  would  impart  a  relish  to  viands 
otherwise  dull  ;  and  some  charming  Dresden  china 
fruit-dishes,  adorned  with  cheerful  shepherds  and 
shepherdesses,  incurable  optimists,  persistently  pleased 
with  themselves  and  their  surroundings  through  all 
the  days  and  nights  of  all  the  cold  silent  years  that 
they  had  been  smiling  at  each  other  in  the  dark. 
On  the  round  dinner-table  was  a  pot  of  lilies  of  the 
valley,   enveloped  in  crinkly  pink  tissue  paper  tied 


^(>  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

round  with  pink  satin  ribbon,  with  ears  of  the  paper 
drawn  up  between  the  flower- stalks  to  produce  a 
pleasing  contrast  of  pink  and  white. 

"Well,  it's  warm  enough  here,  isn't  it.^"  said 
Susie,  going  round  the  room  and  examining  these 
things  with  an  interest  far  exceeding  that  called  forth 
by  the  art  treasures  of  Berlin. 

"  Rather,"  said  Letty,  answering  for  everybody, 
and  rubbing  her  hands.  She  frolicked  about  the 
room,  peeping  into  all  the  corners,  opening  the  cup- 
boards, trying  the  sofa,  and  behaving  in  so  frisky  a 
fashion  that  her  mother,  who  seldom  saw  her  at 
home,  and  knew  her  only  as  a  naughty  gloomy  girl, 
turned  once  or  twice  from  the  interesting  sideboards 
to  stare  at  her  inquiringly  through  her  lorgnette. 

The  servant  with  the  surprised  eyebrows,  who 
presently  brought  in  the  soup,  had  put  on  a  pair  of 
white  cotton  gloves  for  the  ceremony  of  waiting,  but 
still  wore  her  felt  slippers.  She  put  the  plates  in  a 
pile  on  the  edge  of  the  table,  murmured  something 
in  German,  and  ran  out  again  ;  nor  did  she  come 
back  till  she  brought  the  next  course,  when  she  be- 
haved in  a  precisely  similar  manner,  and  continued  to 
do  so  throughout  the  meal  ;  the  diners,  having  no 
bell,  being  obliged  to  sit  patiently  during  the  inter- 
vals, until  she  thought  that  they  might  perhaps  be 
ready  for  some  more. 

It  was  an  odd  meal,  and  began  with  cold  chocolate 
soup  with  frothy  white  things  that  tasted  of  vanilla 
floating  about  in  it.  Susie  was  so  much  interested 
in  this  soup  that  she  forgot  all  about  Hilton,  who 
had  been  driven  ignominiously  to  the  back  door  and 
was  left  sitting  in  the  kitchen  till  the  two  servants 
should  have  time  to  rake  her  upstairs,  and  was 
employing  the  time  composing  a  speech  of  a  spirited 


VI  THE  BENEFACTRESS  77 

nature  in  which  she  intended  giving  her  mistress 
notice  the  moment  she  saw  her  again. 

Her  mistress  meanwhile  was  meditatively  turning 
over  the  vanilla  balls  in  her  soup.  "Well,  I  don't 
like  it,"  she  said  at  last,  laying  down  her  spoon. 

"  Oh,  it's  ripping  !  "  cried  her  daughter  ecstatic- 
ally. "  It's  like  having  one's  pudding  at  the  other 
end." 

"  How  can  you  look  at  chocolate  after  Berlin, 
greedy  girl  } "  asked  her  mother,  disgusted  by  her 
child's  obvious  tendency  towards  a  too  free  in- 
dulgence in  the  pleasures  of  the  table.  But  Letty 
was  feeling  so  jovial  that  in  the  face  of  this  question 
she  boldly  asked  for  more — a  request  that  was  refused 
indignantly  and  at  once. 

There  was  such  a  long  pause  after  the  soup  that 
in  their  hunger  they  began  to  eat  the  stewed  apples 
and  bottled  cherries  that  were  on  the  table.  The 
brown  bread,  arranged  in  thin  slices  on  a  white 
crotchet  mat  in  a  japanned  dish,  felt  so  damp  and 
was  so  full  of  caraway  seeds  that  it  was  uneatable. 
After  a  while  some  roach,  caught  on  the  estate,  and 
with  a  strong  muddy  flavour  and  bewildering  multi- 
tudes of  bones,  was  brought  in  ;  and  after  that  came 
cutlets  from  Anna's  pigs  ;  and  after  that  a  queer  red 
gelatinous  pudding  that  tasted  of  physic  ;  and  after 
that,  the  meal  being  evidently  at  an  end,  Susie,  who 
was  very  hungry,  remarked  that  if  all  the  food  were 
going  to  be  like  those  specimens  they  had  better 
return  at  once  to  England,  or  they  would  certainly 
be  starved.  "  It's  a  good  thing  you  are  not  going 
to  stay  here,  Anna,"  she  said,  "  for  you'd  have  to 
make  a  tremendous  fuss  before  you'd  get  them  to 
leave  off  treating  you  like  a  pig.  Look  here — tea- 
spoons to  eat  the  pudding  with,  and  the  same  fork 


78  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

all  the  way  through.  It's  a  beastly  hole  " — Letty's 
eyebrows  telegraphed  triumphantly  across  to  Miss 
Leech,  "Well,  did  you  hear  that?"  —  "and  we 
ought  to  have  stayed  in  Berlin.  There  was  nothing 
to  be  gained  at  all  by  coming  here." 

"  Perhaps  the  dinner  to-night  will  be  better,"  said 
Anna,  trying  to  comfort  her,  and  little  knowing  that 
they  had  just  eaten  the  dinner  ;  but  people  who  are 
hungry  are  surprisingly  impervious  to  the  influence 
of  fair  words.  "  It  couldn't  be  worse,  anyhow,  so  it 
really  will  probably  be  better.  I'm  very  glad  though 
that  we  did  come,  for  I  like  it." 

"  Oh  yes,  so  do  I,  Aunt  Anna  !  "  cried  Letty. 
"  It's  frightfully  nice.  It's  like  a  picnic  that  doesn't 
leave  off.  When  are  we  going  over  the  house,  and 
out  into  the  garden  ?  I  do  so  want  to  go — oh,  I  do 
so  want  to  go  !  "  And  she  jumped  up  and  down 
impatiently  on  her  chair,  till  her  ardour  was  partially 
quenched  by  her  mother's  forbidding  her  to  go  out  of 
doors  in  the  rain.  "  Well,  let's  go  over  the  house, 
then,"  said  Letty,  dying  to  explore. 

"  Oh  yes,  you  may  go  over  the  house,"  said  her 
mother  with  a  shrug  of  displeasure  ;  though  why  she 
should  be  displeased  it  would  have  puzzled  any  one 
who  had  dined  satisfactorily  to  explain.  Then  she 
suddenly  remembered  Hilton,  and  with  an  exclama- 
tion started  off  in  search  of  her. 

The  others  put  on  their  furs  before  going  into  the 
Arctic  atmosphere  of  the  hall,  and  began  to  explore, 
spending  the  next  hour  very  pleasantly  rambling  all 
over  the  house,  while  Susie,  who  had  found  Hilton, 
remained  shut  up  in  the  bedroom  allotted  her  till 
supper  time. 

The  cook  showed  Anna  her  bedroom,  and  when 
she   had   gone  Anna   gave    one    look    round   at  the 


VI  THE  BENEFACTRESS  79 

evergreen  wreaths  with  which  it  was  decorated  and 
which  filled  it  with  a  pungent,  baked  smell,  and  then 
ran  out  to  see  what  her  house  was  like.  Her  heart 
was  full  of  pride  and  happiness  as  she  wandered  about 
the  rooms  and  passages.  The  magic  word  mine  rang 
in  her  ears,  and  gave  each  piece  of  furniture  a  charm 
so  ridiculously  great  that  she  would  not  have  told 
any  one  of  it  for  the  world.  She  took  up  the  different 
irrelevant  ornaments  that  were  scattered  through  the 
rooms,  collected  as  such  things  do  collect,  nobody 
knew  when  or  why,  and  she  put  them  down  again 
somewhere  else,  only  because  she  had  the  right  to 
alter  things  and  she  loved  to  remind  herself  of  it. 
She  patted  the  walls  and  the  tables  as  she  passed  ;  she 
smoothed  down  the  folds  of  the  curtains  with  tender 
touches  ;  she  went  up  to  every  separate  looking-glass 
and  stood  in  front  of  it  a  moment,  so  that  there 
should  be  none  that  had  not  reflected  the  image  of 
its  mistress.  She  was  so  childishly  delighted  with 
her  scanty  possessions  that  she  was  thankful  Susie 
remained  invisible  and  did  not  come  out  and  scoff. 

What  if  it  seemed  an  odd,  bare  place  to  eyes  used 
to  the  superfluity  of  hangings  and  stuffings  that  pre- 
vailed at  Estcourt  ^  These  bare  boards,  these  shabby 
little  mats  by  the  side  of  the  beds,  the  worn  foxes' 
skins  before  the  writing-tables,  the  cane  or  wooden 
chairs,  the  white  calico  curtains  with  meek  cotton 
fringes,  the  queer  little  prints  on  the  walls,  the 
painted  wooden  bedsteads,  seemed  to  her  in  their 
very  poorness  and  unpretentiousness  to  be  emblem- 
atical of  all  the  virtues.  As  she  lingered  in  the  quiet 
rooms,  while  Letty  raced  along  the  passages,  Anna 
said  to  herself  that  this  Spartan  simplicity,  this 
absence  of  every  luxury  that  could  still  further  soften 
an  already  languid  and  effeminate  soul,  was  beautiful. 


8o  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

Here,  as  in  the  whitewashed  praying-places  of  the 
Puritans,  if  there  were  any  beauty  and  any  glory  it 
must  all  come  from  within,  be  all  of  the  spirit,  be 
only  the  beauty  of  a  clean  life  and  the  glory  of  kind 
thoughts.  She  pictured  herself  waking  up  in  one  of 
those  unadorned  beds  with  the  morning  sun  shining 
on  her  face,  and  rising  to  go  her  daily  round  of 
usefulness  in  her  quiet  house,  where  there  would  be 
no  quarrels,  and  no  pitiful  ambitions,  and  none  of 
those  many  bitter  heartaches  that  need  never  be. 
Would  they  not  be  happy  days,  those  days  of  simple 
duties.?  "The  better  life — the  better  life,"  she  re- 
peated musingly,  standing  in  the  middle  of  the  big 
room  through  whose  tall  windows  she  could  see  the 
garden,  and  a  strip  of  marshy  land,  and  then  the 
grey  sea  and  the  white  of  the  gulls  and  the  dark 
line  of  the  Riigen  coast  over  which  the  dusk  was 
gathering  ;  and  she  counted  on  her  fingers  mechanic- 
ally, "  Simplicity,  frugality,  hard  work.  Uncle 
Joachim  said  that  was  the  better  life,  and   he  was 

wise — oh,  he  was  very  wise— but  still And  he 

loved  me,  and  understood  me,  but  still " 

Looking  up  she  caught  sight  of  herself  in  a 
long  glass  opposite,  a  slim  figure  in  a  fur  cloak, 
with  bare  head  and  pensive  eyes,  lost  in  reflection. 
It  reminded  her  of  the  day  the  letter  came,  when 
she  stood  before  the  glass  in  her  London  bedroom 
dressed  for  dinner,  with  that  same  sentence  of  his 
persistently  in  her  ears,  and  how  she  had  not  been 
able  to  imagine  herself  leading  the  life  it  described. 
Now,  in  her  travelling  dress,  pale  and  tired  and 
subdued  after  the  long  journey,  shorn  of  every  grace 
of  clothes  and  curls,  she  criticised  her  own  fatuity  in 
having  held  herself  to  be  of  too  fine  a  clay,  too 
delicate,  too  fragile,  for  a  life  that  might  be  rough. 


VI  THE  BENEFACTRESS  8i 

"  Oh,  vain  and  foolish  one  !  "  she  said  aloud,  apostro- 
phising the  figure  in  the  glass  with  the  familiar  Du 
of  the  days  before  her  mother  died,  "Art  thou  then 
so  much  better  than  others,  that  thou  must  for  ever  be 
only  ornamental  and  an  expense  ?  Canst  thou  not  live, 
except  in  luxury  ?  Or  walk,  except  on  carpets  ?  Or 
eat,  except  thy  soup  be  not  of  chocolate  ?  Go  to  the 
ants,  thou  sluggard ;  consider  their  ways,  and  be  wise." 
And  she  wrapped  herself  in  her  cloak,  and  frowned 
defiance  at  that  other  girl. 

She  was  standing  scowling  at  herself  with  great 
disapproval  when  the  housemaid,  who  had  been 
searching  for  her  everywhere,  came  to  tell  her  that 
the  Herr  Oberinspector  was  downstairs,  and  had  sent 
up  to  know  if  his  visit  were  convenient. 

It  was  not  at  all  convenient  ;  and  Anna  thought 
that  he  might  have  spared  her  this  first  evening  at 
least.  But  she  supposed  that  she  must  go  down  to 
him,  feeling  somehow  unequal  to  sending  so  authori- 
tative a  person  away. 

She  found  him  standing  in  the  inner  hall  with  a 
portfolio  under  his  arm.  He  was  blowing  his  nose, 
making  a  sound  like  the  blast  of  a  trumpet,  and 
waking  the  echoes.  Not  even  that  could  he  do 
quietly,  she  thought,  her  new  sense  of  proprietorship 
oddly  irritated  by  a  nose  being  blown  so  aggressively 
in  her  house.  Besides,  they  were  her  echoes  that 
he  was  disturbing.  She  smiled  at  her  own  childish- 
ness. 

She  greeted  him  kindly,  however,  in  response  to 
his  elaborate  obeisances,  and  shook  hands  on  seeing 
that  he  expected  to  be  shaken  hands  with,  though 
she  had  done  so  twice  already  that  afternoon  ;  and 
then  she  let  herself  be  ushered  by  him  into  the  draw- 
ing-room, a  room  on  the  garden  side  of  the  house, 

G 


82  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

with  French  whidows,  and  bookshelves,  and  a  huge 
round  polished  table  in  the  middle. 

It  had  been  one  of  the  two  rooms  used  by  Uncle 
Joachim,  and  was  full  of  traces  of  his  visits.  She  sat 
down  at  a  big  writing-table  with  a  green  cloth  top, 
her  feet  plunged  in  the  long  matted  hairs  of  a  gray 
rug,  and  requested  Dellwig  to  sit  down  near  her, 
which  he  did,  saying  apologetically,  "  I  will  be  so  free." 

The  servant,  Marie,  brought  in  a  lamp  with  a 
green  shade,  shut  the  shutters,  and  went  out  again  on 
tiptoe  ;  and  Anna  settled  herself  to  listen  with  what 
patience  she  could  to  the  loud  voice  that  jarred  so  on 
her  nerves,  fortifying  herself  with  reminders  that  it 
was  her  duty,  and  really  taking  pains  to  understand 
him.  Nor  did  she  say  a  word,  as  she  had  done  to 
the  lawyer,  that  might  lead  him  to  suppose  she  did 
not  intend  living  there. 

But  Dellwig's  ceaseless  flow  of  talk  soon  wearied 
her  to  such  an  extent  that  she  found  steady  attention 
impossible.  To  understand  the  mere  words  was  in 
itself  an  effort,  and  she  had  not  yet  learned  the 
German  for  rye  and  oats  and  the  rest,  and  it  was  of 
these  that  he  chiefly  talked.  What  was  the  use  of 
explaining  to  her  in  what  way  he  had  ploughed  and 
manured  and  sown  certain  fields,  how  they  lay,  how 
big  they  were,  and  what  their  soil  was,  when  she  had 
not  seen  them .?  Did  he  imagine  that  she  could  keep 
all  these  figures  and  details  in  her  head  ?  "  I  know 
nothing  of  farming,"  she  said  at  last,  "  and  shall 
understand  your  plans  better  when  I  have  seen  the 
estate." 

"  Natiirlich^  naturlich^''  shouted  Dellwig,  his  voice 
in  strangest  contrast  to  hers,  which  was  particularly 
sweet  and  gentle.  "Here  I  have  a  map — does  the 
gracious  Miss  permit  that  I  show  it .?  " 


i 


VI  THE  BENEFACTRESS  83 

The  gracious  Miss  inclined  her  tired  head,  and 
he  unrolled  it  and  spread  it  out  on  the  table,  point- 
ing with  his  fat  forefinger  as  he  explained  the 
boundaries,  and  the  divisions  into  forest,  pasture,  and 
arable. 

"  It  seems  to  be  nearly  all  forest,"  said  Anna. 

"  Forest  !  The  forest  covers  two-thirds  of  the 
estate.  It  is  the  only  forest  on  the  entire  promon- 
tory. Such  care  as  I  have  bestowed  on  the  forest  has 
seldom  been  seen.  It  is  gross  arlig — colossal!''  And 
he  lifted  his  hands  the  better  to  express  his  admira- 
tion, and  was  about  to  go  into  lengthy  raptures  when 
the  map  rolled  itself  up  again  with  loud  cracklings, 
and  cut  him  short.  He  spread  it  out  once  more,  and 
securing  its  corners  began  to  describe  the  effects  of 
the  various  sorts  of  artificial  manure  on  the  different 
crops,  his  cleverness  in  combining  them,  and  his 
latest  triumphant  discovery  of  the  superlative  mix- 
ture that  was  to  strike  all  Pomerania  with  awe. 

"  y<^,"  said  Anna,  balancing  a  paper-knife  on  one 
finger,  and  profoundly  bored.  "  Whose  land  is  that 
next  to  mine  .'' "  she  asked,  pointing. 

"  The  land  on  the  north  and  west  belongs  to 
peasants,"  said  Dellwig.  "  On  the  east  is  the  sea. 
On  the  south  it  is  all  Lohm.  The  gracious  one 
passed  through  the  village  of  Lohm  this  afternoon." 

"  The  village  where  the  school  is.^  " 

"  Quite  correct.  The  pastor,  Herr  Manske,  a 
worthy  man,  but,  like  all  pastors,  taking  ells  when  he 
is  offered  inches,  serves  both  that  church  and  the 
little  one  in  Kleinwalde  village,  of  which  the  gracious 
Miss  is  patroness.  Herr  von  Lohm,  who  lives  in 
the  house  standing  back  from  the  road,  and  perhaps 
noticed  by  the  gracious  Miss,  is  Amtsvorsteher  in 
both  villages." 


84  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

"What  Is  Amtsvorsteher  ?"  asked  Anna,  languidly. 
She  was  leaning  back  in  her  chair,  idly  balancing  the 
paper-knife,  and  listening  with  half  an  ear  only  to 
Dellwig,  throwing  in  questions  every  now  and  then 
when  she  thought  she  ought  to  say  something.  She 
did  not  look  at  him,  preferring  much  to  look  at  the 
paper-knife,  and  he  could  examine  her  face  at  his 
ease  in  the  shadow  of  the  lamp-shade,  her  dark  eye- 
lashes lowered,  her  profile  only  turned  to  him,  with 
its  delicate  line  of  brow  and  nose,  and  the  soft  and 
gracious  curves  of  the  mouth  and  chin  and  throat. 
One  hand  lay  on  the  table  in  the  circle  of  light,  a 
slender,  beautiful  hand,  full  of  character  and  energy, 
and  the  other  hung  listlessly  over  the  arm  of  the 
chair.  Anna  was  very  tired,  and  showed  it  in  every 
line  of  her  attitude  ;  but  Dellwig  was  not  tired  at  all, 
was  used  to  talking,  enjoyed  at  all  times  the  sound  of 
his  voice,  and  on  this  occasion  felt  it  to  be  his  duty 
to  make  things  clear.  So  he  went  into  the  lengthiest 
details  as  to  the  nature  and  office  of  Amtsvorstehers, 
details  that  were  perfectly  incomprehensible  and 
wholly  indifferent  to  Anna,  and  spared  neither  him- 
self nor  her.  While  he  talked,  however,  he  was 
criticising  her,  comparing  the  laziness  of  her  attitude 
with  the  brisk  and  respectful  alertness  of  other  women 
when  he  talked.  He  knew  that  these  other  women 
belonged  to  a  different  class  ;  his  wife,  the  parson's 
wife,  the  wives  of  the  inspectors  on  other  estates, 
these  were  not,  of  course,  in  the  same  sphere  as  the 
new  mistress  of  Kleinwalde  ;  but  she  was  only  a 
woman,  and  dress  up  a  woman  as  you  will,  call  her 
by  what  name  you  will,  she  is  nothing  but  a  woman, 
born  to  help  and  serve,  never  by  any  possibility  even 
equal  to  a  clever  man  like  himself.  Old  Joachim 
might  have  lounged  as  he  chose,  and  put  his  feet  on 


VI  THE  BENEFACTRESS  85 

the  table  if  it  had  seemed  good  to  him,  and  Dellwig 
would  have  accepted  it  with  unquestioning  respect  as 
an  eccentricity  of  Herrschaften  ;  but  a  woman  had  no 
sort  of  right,  he  said  to  himself,  while  he  so  fluently 
discoursed,  to  let  herself  go  in  the  presence  of  her 
natural  superior.  Unfortunately  old  Joachim,  so 
level-headed  an  old  gentleman  in  all  other  respects, 
had  placed  the  power  over  his  fortunes  in  the  hands 
of  this  weak  female  leaning  back  so  unbecomingly  in 
her  chair,  playing  with  the  objects  on  the  table,  never 
raising  her  eyes  to  his,  and  showing  indeed,  incredible 
as  it  seemed,  every  symptom  of  thinking  of  some- 
thing else.  The  women  of  his  acquaintance  were, 
he  was  certain,  worth  individually  fifty  such  affected, 
indifferent  young  ladies.  They  worked  early  and 
late  to  make  their  husbands  comfortable  ;  they  were 
well  practised  in  every  art  required  of  women  living 
in  the  country  ;  they  were  models  of  thrift  and  dili- 
gence ;  yet,  with  all  their  virtues  and  all  their  accom- 
plishments, they  never  dreamed  of  lounging  or  not 
listening  when  a  man  was  speaking,  but  sat  attentively 
on  the  edge  of  their  chairs,  straight  in  the  back  and 
seemly,  and  when  he  had  finished  said  Javjohl. 

Anna  certainly  did  sit  very  much  at  her  ease,  and 
instead  of  attending,  as  she  ought  to  have  done,  to 
his  description  of  Amtsvorstehers,  was  thinking  of 
other  things.  Dellwig  had  thick  lips  that  could  not 
be  hidden  entirely  by  his  grizzled  moustache  and 
beard,  and  he  had  the  sort  of  eyes  known  to  the 
inelegant  but  truthful  as  fishy,  and  a  big  obstinate 
nose,  and  a  narrow  obstinate  forehead,  and  a  long 
body  and  short  legs  ;  and  though  all  this,  Anna  told 
herself,  was  not  in  the  least  his  fault  and  should  not 
in  any  way  prejudice  her  against  him,  she  felt  that 
she  was  justified  in  wishing  that  his  manners  were 


86  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

less  offensive,  less  boastful  and  boisterous,  and  that 
he  did  not  bite  his  nails.  "  I  wonder,"  she  thought, 
her  eyes  carefully  fixed  on  the  paper-knifs,  but  con- 
scious of  his  every  look  and  movement, — "  I  wonder 
if  he  is  as  artful  as  he  looks.  Surely  Uncle  Joachim 
must  have  known  what  he  was  like,  and  would  never 
have  told  me  to  keep  him  if  he  had  not  been  honest. 
Perhaps  he  is  perfectly  honest,  and  when  I  meet  him 
in  heaven  how  ashamed  I  shall  be  of  myself  for  hav- 
ing had  doubts  !  "  And  then  she  fell  to  musing  on 
what  sort  of  an  appearance  a  chastened  and  angelic 
Dellwig  would  probably  present,  and  looked  up 
suddenly  at  him  with  new  interest, 

"  I  trust  I  have  made  myself  comprehensible  .?  "  he 
was  asking,  having  just  come  to  the  end  of  what  he 
felt  was  a  masterly  resume  of  Herr  von  Lohm's  duties. 

"  I  beg  your  pardon  ? "  said  Anna,  bringing  her 
thoughts  back  with  difficulty  from  the  consideration 
of  nimbuses,  "  Oh,  about  Amtsvorstehers — no,"  she 
said,  shaking  her  head,  "  you  have  not.  But  that  is 
my  fault.  I  can't  understand  everything  at  once.  I 
shall  do  better  later  on." 

"  Naturlichy  naturlich^''  Dellwig  vehemently  as- 
sured her,  while  he  made  inward  comments  on  the 
innate  incapacity  of  all  IVeiber^  as  he  called  them,  to 
grasp  the  simplest  fact  connected  with  law  and  justice. 

"  Tell  me  about  the  livestock,"  said  Anna,  re- 
membering Uncle  Joachim's  frequent  and  affectionate 
allusions  to  his  swine.     "  Are  there  many  pigs  ^  " 

"  Pigs  }  "  repeated  Dellwig,  lifting  up  his  hands  as 
though  mere  words  were  insufficient  to  express  his 
feelings.  "Such  pigs  as  the  gracious  Miss  now 
possesses  are  nowhere  else  to  be  found  in  Pomerania. 
They  are  the  pride,  and  at  the  same  time  the  envy, 
of  the  whole  province.     '  Let  my  sausages,'  said  the 


VI  THE  BENEFACTRESS  87 

Herr  Regierungsprasident  last  winter,  when  the  time 
for  killing  drew  near, — '  let  my  sausages  consist  solely 
of  the  pigs  reared  at  Kleinwalde  by  my  friend  the 
Oberinspector  Dellwig.'  The  Frau  Regierungs- 
prasidentin  was  deeply  injured,  for  she  too  breeds 
and  fattens  pigs,  but  not  like  ours — not  like  ours." 

"Who  is  the  Herr  Regierungsprasident  ?"  asked 
Anna  absently  ;  but  immediately  remembering  the 
description  of  the  Amtsvorsteher  she  added  quickly, 
"  Never  mind — don't  explain.  I  suppose  he  is  some 
sort  of  an  official,  and  I  shall  not  be  quite  clear  about 
these  different  officials  till  I  have  lived  here  some 
time." 

"  Natiirlich^  naturlich^^  agreed  Dellwig  ;  and  leav- 
ing the  Regierungsprasident  unexplained  he  launched 
forth  into  a  dissertation  on  Anna's  pigs,  whose  excel- 
lencies, it  appeared,  were  wholly  due  to  the  unrivalled 
skill  he  had  for  years  displayed  in  their  treatment.  "  I 
have  no  children,"  he  said,  with  a  resigned  and  pious 
upward  glance,  "  and  my  wife's  maternal  instincts 
find  their  satisfaction  in  tending  and  fattening  these 
fine  animals.  She  cannot  listen  to  their  cries  the  day 
they  are  killed,  and  withdraws  into  the  cellar,  where  she 
prepares  the  stuffing.  The  gracious  Miss  ate  the  cut- 
lets of  one  this  very  day.     It  was  killed  on  purpose." 

"  Was  it  .''  I  wish  it  hadn't  been,"  said  Anna, 
frowning  at  the  remembrance  of  that  meal.  "  I — 
I  don't  want  things  killed  on  my  account.  T — don't 
like  pig." 

"■"'  Not  like  pig  '^.  "  echoed  Dellwig,  dropping  his 
lower  jaw  in  his  amazement.  "  Did  I  understand 
aright  that  the  gracious  one  does  not  eat  pig's  flesh 
gladly  .''  And  my  wife  and  I  who  thought  to  prepare 
a  joy  for  her  !  "  He  clasped  his  hands  together  and 
stared   at   her   in   dismay.     Indeed,  he  was  so  much 


88  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

overcome  by  this  extraordinary  and  wilful  spurning 
of  nature's  best  gifts  that  for  a  moment  he  was 
silent,  and  knew  not  how  he  should  proceed.  Were 
there  not  concentrated  in  the  body  of  a  single  pig  a 
greater  diversity  of  joys  than  in  any  other  form  of 
pleasure  that  he  could  call  to  mind.^  Did  it  not 
include,  besides  the  profounder  delights  of  its  roasted 
ribs,  such  solid  satisfactions  as  hams,  sausages,  and 
bacon  .''  Did  not  its  liver,  discreetly  manipulated, 
rival  the  livers  of  Strasburg  geese  in  delicacy  ^  Were 
not  its  brains  a  source  of  mutual  congratulation  to  an 
entire  family  at  supper  ?  Did  not  its  very  snout, 
boiled  with  peas,  make  an  otherwise  inferior  soup 
delicious  ?  The  ribs  of  this  particular  pig  were 
reposing  at  that  moment  in  a  cool  place,  carefully 
shielded  from  harm  by  his  wife,  reserved  for  the 
Easter  Sunday  dinner  of  their  new  mistress,  who, 
having  begun  at  her  first  meal  with  the  lesser  joys  of 
cutlets,  was  to  be  fed  with  different  parts  in  the 
order  of  their  excellence  till  the  climax  of  rejoicing 
was  reached  on  Easter  Day  in  the  dish  of  Schweine- 
hraten^  and  who  was  now  declaring,  in  a  die-away, 
affected  sort  of  voice,  that  she  did  not  want  to  eat 
pig  at  all.  Where,  then,  was  her  vulnerable  point  } 
How  would  he  ever  be  able  to  touch  her,  to  influence 
her,  if  she  was  indifferent  to  the  chief  means  of 
happiness  known  to  the  dwellers  in  those  parts  ? 
That  was  the  real  aim  and  end  of  his  labours,  of  the 
labours,  as  far  as  he  could  see,  of  every  one  else — to 
make  as  much  money  as  possible  in  order  to  live  as 
well  as  possible  ;  and  what  did  living  well  mean  if  it 
did  not  mean  the  best  food  }  And  what  was  the  best 
food  if  not  pig  }  Not  to  be  killed  on  her  account  ! 
On  whose  account,  then,  could  they  be  killed  .^ 
With  an  owner  always  about  the  place,  and  refusing 


VI  THE  BENEFACTRESS  89 

to  have  pigs  killed,  how  would  he  and  his  wife  be 
able  to  indulge,  with  satisfactory  frequency,  in  their 
favourite  food,  or  offer  it  to  their  expectant  friends 
on  Sundays  ?  He  mourned  old  Joachim,  who  so 
seldom  came  down,  and  when  he  did  ate  his  share  of 
pork  like  a  man,  more  sincerely  at  that  moment  than 
he  would  have  thought  possible.  "  Mein  seliger 
Herr^'  he  burst  out  brokenly,  completely  upset  by 
the  difference  between  uncle  and  niece,  "  mein  seliger 
Herr — - — "  And  then,  unable  to  go  on,  fell  to  blowing 
his  nose  with  violence,  for  there  v/ere  real  tears  in  his 
eyes. 

Anna  looked  up,  surprised.  She  thought  he  had 
been  speaking  of  pigs,  and  here  he  was  on  a  sudden 
bewailing  his  late  master.  When  she  saw  the  tears 
she  was  deeply  touched.  "  Poor  man,"  she  said  to 
herself,  "  how  unjust  I  have  been.  Of  course  he 
loved  dear  Uncle  Joachim  ;  and  my  coming  here,  an 
utter  stranger,  taking  possession  of  everything,  must 
be  very  dreadful  for  him."  She  got  up,  at  once 
anxious,  as  she  always  was,  to  comfort  and  soothe 
any  one  who  was  sad,  and  put  her  hand  gently  on  his 
arm.  "  I  loved  him  too,"  she  said  softly,  "  and  you 
who  knew  him  so  long  must  feel  his  death  dreadfully. 
We  will  try  and  keep  everything  just  as  he  would 
have  liked  it,  won't  we  .''  You  know  what  his  wishes 
were,  and  must  help  me  to  carry  them  out.  You 
cannot  have  loved  him  more  than  I  did — dear  Uncle 
Joachim  !  " 

She  felt  very  near  tears  herself,  and  condoned  the 
sonorous  nose -blowing  as  the  expression  of  an 
honourable  emotion 

And  Dellwig,  when  he  presently  reached  his  home 
and  was  met  at  the  door  by  his  wife's  eager  "  Well, 
how  was  she  .'' "  laconically  replied  "  Mad." 


CHAPTER   VII 

When  Anna  woke  next  morning  she  had  a  confused 
idea  that  something  annoying  had  happened  the 
evening  before,  but  she  had  slept  so  heavily  that  she 
could  not  at  once  recollect  what  it  was.  Then,  the  sun 
on  her  face  waking  her  up  more  thoroughly,  she  re- 
membered that  Susie  had  stayed  upstairs  with  Hilton 
till  supper-time,  had  then  come  down,  glanced  with 
unutterable  disgust  at  the  raw  ham,  cold  sausage, 
eggs,  and  tepid  coffee  of  which  the  evening  meal  was 
composed,  refused  to  eat,  refused  to  speak,  refused 
utterly  to  smile,  and  afterwards  in  the  drawing-room 
had  announced  her  fixed  intention  of  returning  to 
England  the  next  day. 

Anna  had  protested  and  argued  in  vain  ;  nothing 
could  shake  this  sudden  determination.  To  all  her 
expostulations  and  entreaties  Susie  replied  that  she  had 
never  yet  dwelt  among  savages,  and  she  was  not  going 
to  begin  now  ;  so  Anna  was  forced  to  conclude  that 
Hilton  had  been  making  a  scene,  and  knowing  the 
effect  of  Hilton's  scenes  she  gave  up  attempting  to 
persuade,  but  told  her  with  outward  firmness  and 
inward  quakings  that  she  herself  could  not  possibly 
go  too. 

Susie  had  been  very  angry  at  this,  and  still  more 
angry   at    the    reason   Anna   gave,  which   was    that. 


CHAP.  VII       THE  BENEFACTRESS  91 

having  invited  the  parson  and  his  wife  to  dinner  on 
Saturday,  she  could  not  break  her  engagement.  Susie 
told  her  that  as  she  would  never  see  either  of  them 
again — for  surely  she  would  never  again  want  to  come 
to  this  place  .'' — it  was  absurd  to  care  twopence  what 
they  thought  of  her.  What  on  earth  did  it  matter 
if  two  inhabitants  of  the  desert  were  offended  or  not 
offended  once  she  was  on  the  other  side  of  the  sea .'' 
And  what  did  it  matter  at  all  how  she  treated  them  ? 
She  heaped  such  epithets  as  absurd,  stupid,  and 
idiotic,  on  Anna's  head,  but  Anna  was  not  to  be 
moved.  She  threatened  to  take  Miss  Leech  and 
Letty  away  with  her,  and  leave  Anna  a  prey  to  the 
criticisms  of  Mrs.  Grundy,  and  Anna  said  she  could 
not  prevent  her  doing  so  if  she  chose.  Susie  be- 
came more  and  more  excited,  more  and  more  Dobbs, 
goaded  by  the  recollection  of  what  she  had  gone 
through  with  Hilton,  and  Anna,  as  usual  under 
such  circumstances,  grew  very  silent.  Letty  sat 
listening  in  an  agony  of  fright  lest  this  cup  of  new 
experiences  was  about  to  be  dashed  prematurely 
from  her  eager  lips  ;  and  Miss  Leech  discreetly  left 
the  room,  though  not  in  the  least  knowing  where  to 
go,  finally  seeking  to  drive  away  the  nervous  fears 
that  assailed  her  in  her  lonely,  creaking  bedroom,  where 
rats  were  gnawing  at  the  woodwork,  by  thinking  hard 
of  Mr.  Jessup,  who  on  this  occasion  proved  to  be  but 
a  broken  reed,  pitted  against  the  stern  reality  of  rats. 
The  end  of  it,  after  Susie  had  poured  out  the 
customary  reproaches  of  gross  ingratitude  and  for- 
getfulness  of  all  she  had  done  for  Anna  for  fifteen 
long  years,  was  that  Miss  Leech  and  Letty  were  to 
stay  on  as  originally  intended,  and  come  home  with 
Anna  towards  the  end  of  the  holidays,  and  Susie 
would  leave  with  Hilton  the  very  next  day. 


92  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

Anna's  attempt  to  make  it  up  when  she  said  good- 
night was  repulsed  with  energy.  Anna  was  for  ever 
doing  aggravating  things,  and  then  wanting  to  make 
it  up  ;  but  makings  up  without  having  given  in 
an  inch  seemed  to  Susie  singularly  unsatisfactory 
ceremonies.  Oh,  these  Estcourts  and  their  obsti- 
nacy !  She  marched  off  to  bed  in  high  indignation — 
an  indignation  not  by  any  means  allowed  to  cool  by 
Hilton  during  the  process  of  undressing  ;  and  Anna, 
worn  out,  fell  asleep  the  moment  she  lay  down,  and 
woke  up,  as  she  had  pictured  herself  doing  in  that 
odd  wooden  bed,  with  the  morning  sun  shining  full 
on  her  face. 

It  was  a  bright  and  lovely  day,  and  on  the  side  of 
the  house  where  she  slept  she  could  not  hear  the  wind, 
which  was  still  blowing  from  the  north-west.  She 
opened  one  of  her  three  big  windows  and  let  the  cold 
air  rush  into  her  room,  where  the  curious  perfume  of 
the  baked  evergreen  wreaths  festooned  round  the 
walls  and  looking-glass  and  dressing-table,  joined  to 
the  heat  from  the  stove,  produced  a  heavy  atmosphere 
that  made  her  gasp.  Somebody  must  already  have 
been  in  her  room,  for  the  stove  had  been  lit  again, 
and  she  could  see  the  peat  blazing  inside  its  open 
door.  But  outside,  what  a  divine  coldness  and 
purity !  She  leaned  out,  drinking  it  in  in  long 
breaths,  the  warm  March  sun  shining  on  her  head. 
The  garden,  a  mere  uncared-for  piece  of  rough  grass 
with  big  trees,  was  radiant  with  raindrops  ;  the  strip 
of  sea  was  a  deep  blue  now,  with  crests  of  foam  ;  the 
island  coast  opposite  was  a  shadowy  streak  stretched 
across  the  feet  of  the  sun.  Oh,  it  was  beautiful  to  stand 
at  that  open  window  in  the  freshness,  listening  to  the 
robin  on  the  bare  lilac  bush  a  few  yards  away,  to  the 
quarrelling   of  the   impudent  sparrows  on  the  path 


VII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  93 

below,  to  the  wind  in  the  branches  of  the  trees,  to  all 
the  happy  morning  sounds  of  nature.  A  joyous 
feeling  took  possession  of  her  heart,  a  sudden  over- 
powering delight  in  what  are  called  common  things — 
mere  earth,  sky,  sun,  and  wind.  How  lovely  life 
was  on  such  a  morning,  in  such  a  clean,  rain-washed, 
wind-scoured  world.  The  wet  smell  of  the  garden 
came  up  to  her,  a  whiff  of  marshy  smell  from  the 
water,  a  long  breath  from  the  pines  in  the  forest  on 
the  other  side  of  the  house.  How  had  she  ever 
breathed  at  Estcourt  ?  How  had  she  escaped 
suffocation  without  this  life-giving  smell  of  sea  and 
forest  ?  She  looked  down  with  delight  at  the  wild- 
ness  of  the  garden  ;  after  the  trim  Estcourt  lawns, 
what  a  relief  this  was.  This  was  all  liberty,  freedom 
from  conventionality,  absolute  privacy  ;  that  was  an 
everlasting  clipping,  and  trimming,  and  raking,  a 
perpetual  stumbling  upon  gardeners  at  every  step,  for 
Susie  would  not  be  outdone  by  her  greater  neighbours 
in  these  matters.  What  was  Hill  Street  looking  like 
this  fine  March  morning .''  All  the  blinds  down,  all 
the  people  in  bed — how  far  away,  how  shadowy  it 
was  ;  a  street  inhabited  by  sleepy  ghosts,  with 
phantom  milkmen  rattling  spectral  cans  beneath  their 
windows.  What  a  dream  that  life  lived  up  to  three 
days  ago  seemed  in  this  morning  light  of  reality. 
W^hite  clouds,  like  the  clouds  in  Raphael's  back- 
grounds, were  floating  so  high  overhead  that  they 
could  not  be  hurried  by  the  wind  ;  a  black  cat  sat  in 
a  patch  of  sunshine  on  the  path  washing  itself;  some- 
body opened  a  lower  window,  and  there  was  a  noise 
of  sweeping,  presently  made  indistinguishable  by  the 
chorale  sung  by  the  sweeper,  no  doubt  Marie,  in  a 
pious.  Good  Friday  mood.  "  Loi^  Gott  ihr  Christen 
allzugleich^''  chanted   Marie,  keeping  time  with   her 


94  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

broom.  Her  voice  was  loud  and  monotonous,  but 
Anna  listened  with  a  smile,  and  would  have  liked  to 
join  in,  and  so  let  some  of  her  happiness  find  its  way 
out. 

She  dressed  quickly.  There  was  no  hot  water, 
and  no  bell  to  ring  for  some,  and  she  did  not  choose 
to  call  down  from  the  window  and  interrupt  the 
hymn,  so  she  used  cold  water,  assuring  herself  that 
it  was  bra.cing.  Then  she  put  on  her  hat  and  coat 
and  stole  out,  afraid  of  disturbing  Susie,  who  was 
lying  a  few  yards  away  filled  with  smouldering 
wrath,  anxious  to  have  at  least  one  quiet  hour  before 
beginning  a  day  that  she  felt  sure  was  going  to  be  a 
day  of  worries.  "  There  will  be  great  peace  to-night 
when  she  is  gone,"  she  thought,  and  immediately 
felt  ashamed  that  she  should  look  forward  to  being 
without  her.  "  But  I  have  never  been  without  her 
since  I  was  ten,"  she  explained  apologetically  to  her 
offended  conscience,  "  and  I  want  to  see  how  I  feel." 

"  Guten  Morgen^^  said  Marie,  as  Anna  came  into 
the  drawing-room  on  her  way  out  through  its  French- 
windows. 

"  Guten  Morgen"  said  Anna  cheerfully. 

Marie  leaned  on  her  broom  and  watched  her  go 
down  the  garden,  greedily  taking  in  every  detail  of 
her  clothes,  profoundly  interested  in  a  being  who 
went  out  into  the  mud  where  nobody  could  see  her 
with  such  a  dress  on,  and  whose  shoes  would  not 
have  been  too  big  for  Marie's  small  sister  aged  nine. 

The  evening  before,  indeed,  Marie  had  beheld  such 
a  vision  as  she  had  never  yet  in  her  life  seen,  or  so 
much  as  imagined  ;  her  new  mistress  had  appeared 
at  supper  in  what  was  evidently  a  herrschaftliche 
Ballkleid^  with  naked  arms  and  shoulders,  and  the 
other  ladies  were  attired    in   much    the   same  way. 


VII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  95 

The  young  Fraulein,  it  is  true,  showed  no  bare  flesh, 
hut  even  she  was  arrayed  in  white,  and  her  hair 
magnificently  tied  up  with  ribbons.  Marie  had 
rushed  out  to  tell  the  cook,  and  the  cook,  refusing 
to  believe  it,  had  carried  in  a  supererogatory  dish  of 
compot  as  an  excuse  for  securing  the  assurance  of  her 
own  eyes  ;  and  Bertha  from  the  farm,  coming  round 
with  a  message  from  the  Frau  Oberinspector,  had  seen 
it  too  through  the  crack  of  the  kitchen  door  as  the 
ladies  left  the  dining-room,  and  had  gone  off  breath- 
lessly to  spread  the  news  ;  and  the  post  cart  just 
leaving  with  the  letters  had  carried  it  to  Lohm,  and 
every  inhabitant  of  every  house  between  Kleinwalde 
and  Stralsund  knew  all  about  it  before  bedtime. 
"What  did  I  tell  thee,  wife.''  "  said  Dellwig,  who,  in 
spite  of  his  superiority  to  the  sex  that  served,  listened 
as  eagerly  as  any  member  of  it  to  gossip ;  and  his 
wife  was  only  too  ready  to  label  Anna  mad  or  eccen- 
tric as  a  slight  private  consolation  for  having  passed 
out  of  the  service  of  a  comprehensible  German  gentle- 
man into  that  of  a  woman  and  a  foreigner. 

Unconscious  of  the  interest  and  curiosity  she  was 
exciting  for  miles  round,  pleased  by  Marie's  artless 
piety,  and  filled  with  kindly  feelings  towards  all  her 
neighbours,  Anna  stood  at  the  end  of  the  garden 
looking  over  the  low  hedge  that  divided  it  from  the 
marsh  and  the  sea,  and  thought  that  she  had  never 
seen  a  place  where  it  would  be  so  easy  to  be  good. 
Complete  freedom  from  the  wearisome  obligations  of 
society,  an  ideal  privacy  surrounded  by  her  woods 
and  the  water,  a  scanty  population  of  simple  and 
devoted  people — did  not  Dellwig  shed  tears  at  the 
remembrance  of  his  master .'' — every  day  spent  here 
would  be  a  day  that  made  her  better — that  would 
bring  her  nearer  to  that  heaven  in  which  all  good  and 


96  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

simple  souls  dwelt  while  still  on  earth,  the  heaven  of 
a  serene  and  quiet  mind.  Always  she  had  longed  to 
be  good,  and  to  help  and  befriend  those  who  had  the 
same  longing,  but  in  whom  it  had  been  partially 
crushed  by  want  of  opportunity  and  want  of  peace. 
The  healthy  goodness  that  goes  hand  in  hand  with 
happiness  was  what  she  meant  ;  not  that  tragic  and 
futile  goodness  that  grows  out  of  grief,  that  lifts  its 
head  miserably  in  stony  places,  that  flourishes  in  sick- 
rooms and  among  desperate  sorrows,  and  goes  to 
God  only  because  all  else  is  lost.  She  went  round 
the  house  and  crossed  the  road  into  the  forest. 
The  fresh  wind  blew  in  her  face,  and  shook  down 
the  drops  from  the  branches  on  her  as  she  passed. 
The  pine  needles  of  other  years  made  a  thick  carpet 
for  her  feet.  The  sun  gleamed  through  the  straight 
trunks  and  warmed  her.  The  restless  sighing  over- 
heard in  the  tree-tops  filled  her  ears  with  sweetest 
music.  "  I  do  believe  the  place  is  pleased  that  I 
have  come  !  "  she  thought,  with  a  happy  laugh.  She 
came  to  a  clearing  in  the  trees,  opening  out  towards 
the  north,  and  she  could  see  the  flat  fields  and  the 
wide  sky  and  the  sunshine  chasing  the  shadows  across 
the  vivid  green  patches  that  she  had  learned  were 
winter  rye.  A  hole  at  her  feet,  where  a  tree  had 
been  uprooted,  still  had  snow  in  it  ;  but  the  larks 
were  singing  above  in  the  blue,  as  though  from  those 
high  places  they  could  see  Spring  far  away  in  the 
south,  coming  up  slowly  with  the  first  anemones  in 
her  hands,  her  face  turned  at  last  towards  the  patient 
north. 

The  strangest  feeling  of  being  for  the  first  time  in 
her  life  at  home  came  over  Anna.  This  poor  country, 
how  sweet  and  touching  it  was.  After  the  English 
country,    with    its    thickly  -  scattered   villages,    and 


VII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  97 

gardens,  and  fields  that  looked  like  parks,  it  did 
seem  very  poor  and  very  empty,  but  intensely 
lovable.  Like  the  furniture  of  her  house,  it  struck 
her  as  symbolic  in  its  bareness  of  the  sturdier  virtues. 
The  people  who  lived  in  it  must  of  necessity  be 
frugal  and  hard-working  if  they  would  live  at  all, 
wresting  by  sheer  labour  their  life  from  the  soil, 
braced  by  the  long  winters  to  endurance  and  self- 
denial,  their  vices  and  their  languors  frozen  out  of 
them  whether  they  would  or  no.  At  least  so  thought 
Anna,  as  she  stood  gazing  out  across  the  clearing  at 
the  fields  and  sky.  "  Could  one  not  be  good  here  ? 
Could  one  not  be  so,  so  good  .'' "  she  kept  on  mur- 
muring. Then  she  remembered  that  she  had  been 
asking  herself  vague  questions  like  this  ever  since 
her  arrival  ;  and  with  a  sudden  determination  to  face 
what  was  in  her  mind  and  think  it  out  honestly,  she 
sat  down  on  a  tree  stump,  buttoned  her  coat  up  tight, 
for  the  wind  was  blowing  full  on  her,  and  fell  to  con- 
sidering what  she  meant  to  do. 

Susie  did  not  go  down  to  breakfast,  but  stayed  in 
her  bedroom  on  the  sofa  drinking  a  glass  of  milk 
into  which  an  egg  had  been  beaten,  and  listening  to 
Hilton's  criticisms  of  the  German  nation,  delivered 
with  much  venom  while  she  packed.  But  Hilton, 
though  her  contempt  for  German  ways  was  so  great 
as  to  be  almost  unutterable,  was  reconciled  to  a 
mistress  who  had  so  quickly  given  in  to  her  wish  to 
be  taken  back  to  Hill  Street,  and  the  venom  was  of 
an  abstract  nature,  containing  no  personal  sting  of 
unfavourable  comparisons  with  duchesses  ;  so  that 
Susie  was  sipping  her  milk  in  a  fairly  placid  frame  of 
mind  when  there  was  a  knock  at  the  door,  and  Anna 
asked  if  she  migrht  come  in. 


98  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

"  Oh  yes,  come  in.  Have  you  looked  out  the 
trains  ^ " 

"  Yes.  There's  only  one  decent  one,  and  you'll 
have  to  leave  directly  after  luncheon.  Won't  you 
stay,  Susie.?  You'll  be  so  tired,  going  home  with- 
out resting." 

"  Can't  we  leave  before  luncheon  ?  " 

"  Yes,  of  course,  if  you  prefer  to  lunch  at  Stral- 
sund." 

"  Much.     Have  you  ordered  the  shandrydan  }  " 

"  Yes,  for  half-past  one." 

"  Then  order  it  for  half-past  twelve.  Hilton  can 
drive  with  me." 

"  So  I  thought." 

"  Has  that  wretch  been  rubbing  fish  oil  on  it 
again  ^ " 

"I  don't  think  so,  after  what  I  said  yesterday." 

"  I  shouldn't  think  what  you  said  yesterday  could 
have  frightened  him  much.  You  beamed  at  him  as 
though  he  were  your  best  friend." 

"Did  I.?" 

Anna  was  looking  odd,  Susie  thought,  and  answer- 
ing her  remarks  with  a  nervous,  abstracted  air.  She 
had  apparently  been  out,  for  her  dress  was  muddy, 
and  she  was  quite  rosy,  and  her  hair  was  not  so  neat 
as  usual.  She  stood  about  in  an  undecided  sort  of 
way,  and  glanced  several  times  at  Hilton  on  her  li:nees 
before  a  trunk. 

*'  Is  that  all  the  breakfast  you  are  going  to  have  ? " 
she  asked,  becoming  aware  of  the  glass  of  milk. 

"  What  other  breakfast  is  there  to  have  ?  "  snapped 
Susie,  who  was  hungry,  and  would  have  liked  a  great 
deal  more. 

"  Well,  the  eggs  and  butter  are  very  nice,  anyway," 
said  Anna,  quite  evidently  thinking  of  other  things. 


VII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  99 

"  Now  what  has  she  got  into  her  head  ? "  Susie 
asked  herself,  watching  her  sister-in-law  with  mis- 
giving. Anna's  new  moods  were  never  by  any- 
chance  of  a  sort  to  give  Susie  pleasure.  Aloud  she 
said  tartly,  "  I  can't  eat  eggs  and  butter  by  them- 
selves. I  shouldn't  have  had  anything  at  all  if  it 
hadn't  been  for  Hilton,  who  went  into  the  kitchen 
and  made  me  this  herself." 

"Excellent  Hilton,"  said  Anna,  absently. 
"  Haven't  you  done  packing  yet,  Hilton  .'' " 

"  No,  m'm." 

Anna  sat  down  on  the  end  of  the  sofa  and  began 
to  twist  the  frills  of  Susie's  dressing-gown  round  her 
fingers. 

"  I  haven't  closed  my  eyes  all  night,"  said  Susie, 
putting  on  her  martyr  look,  "  nor  has  Hilton." 

"  Haven't  you  ?  Why  not  ?  I  slept  the  sleep  of 
the  just — better,  indeed,  than  any  just  that  I  ever 
heard  of," 

"  What,  didn't  that  man  go  into  your  room  ?  " 

"  What  man  .?  Oh  yes.  Miss  Leech  was  telling 
me  about  it.  He  lit  the  stoves,  didn't  he  ?  I  never 
heard  a  sound." 

"  You  must  have  slept  like  a  log  then.  Any  one 
in  the  least  sensitive  would  have  been  frightened  out 
of  their  senses.  I  was,  and  so  was  Hilton.  I 
wouldn't  spend  another  night  in  this  house  for 
anything  you  could  give  me." 

It  appeared  that  Susie  really  had  just  cause  for 
complaint.  She  had  been  nervous  the  night  before 
after  Hilton  had  left  her,  unable  to  sleep,  and  scared 
by  the  thought  of  their  defencelessness — six  women 
alone  in  that  wild  place.  She  wished  then  with  all 
her  heart  that  Dellwig  did  live  in  the  house.  Rats 
scampering  about   in   the   attic  above  added  to  her 


loo  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

terrors.  The  wind  shook  the  windows  of  her  room 
and  howled  disconsolately  up  and  down.  She  bore 
it  as  long  as  she  could,  which  was  longer  than  most 
women  would  have  borne  it,  and  then  knocked  on 
the  wall  dividing  her  room  from  Hilton's.  But 
Hilton,  with  the  bedclothes  over  her  head  and  all 
the  candles  she  had  been  able  to  collect  alight,  would 
not  have  stirred  out  of  her  room  to  save  her  mistress 
from  dying  ;  and  Susie,  desperate  at  the  prospect 
of  the  awful  hours  round  midnight,  made  one  great 
effort  of  courage  and  sallied  out  to  fetch  her.  Poor 
Susie,  standing  shivering  before  her  maid's  bolted 
door,  scantily  clothed,  anxiously  watching  the  flame 
of  her  candle  that  threatened  each  second  to  be  blown 
out,  alone  on  the  wide,  draughty  landing,  frightened 
at  the  sound  of  her  own  calls  mingling  weirdly  with 
the  creakings  and  hangings  of  the  tempest-shaken 
house,  was  an  object  deserving  of  pity.  It  took 
some  minutes  to  induce  Hilton  to  open  the  door, 
and  such  minutes  Susie  had  not,  in  the  course  of  an 
ordered  and  normal  existence,  yet  passed.  They 
both  went  into  Susie's  room,  locked  themselves  in, 
and  Hilton  lay  down  on  the  sofa  ;  and  after  a  long 
time  they  fell  into  an  uneasy  sleep.  At  half-past 
three  Susie  started  up  in  bed  ;  some  one  was  trying 
to  open  the  door  and  knocking.  The  candles  had 
burnt  themselves  out,  and  she  could  not  tell  what 
time  it  was,  but  thought  it  must  be  early  morning 
and  that  the  servant  wanted  to  bring  her  hot  water  ; 
and  she  woke  Hilton  and  bade  her  open  the  door, 
Hilton  did  so,  gave  a  faint  scream,  and  flung  herself 
back  on  the  sofa,  where  she  lay  as  one  dead,  her  face 
buried  in  the  pillow.  A  man  with  a  lantern  and  no 
shoes  on  was  at  the  door,  and  came  in  noiselessly. 
Susie  was  never  nearer  fainting  in   her  life.     She  sat 


VII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  loi 

in  her  bed,  her  cold  hands  clasped  tightly  round  her 
knees,  her  eyes  fixed  on  this  dreadful  apparition, 
unable  to  speak  or  move,  paralysed  by  terror.  This 
was  the  end,  then,  of  all  her  hopes  and  ambitions — 
to  come  to  Pomerania  and  die  like  a  dog.  Then  the 
sickening  feeling  of  fear  gave  way  to  one  of  over- 
whelming wrath  when  she  found  that  all  the  man 
wanted  was  to  light  her  stove.  On  the  same 
principle  that  a  child  is  shaken  who  has  not  after 
all  been  lost  or  run  over,  she  was  speechless  with 
rage  now  that  she  found  that  she  was  not,  after  all, 
to  be  murdered.  He  was  a  very  old  man,  and  the 
light  from  the  lantern  cast  strange  reflections  on  his 
face  and  figure  as  he  crouched  before  the  stove.  He 
mumbled  as  he  worked,  talking  to  the  fire  he  was 
making  as  though  it  were  a  person.  "  Du  ivilhi  nicht 
brennen^  Lump?  Was?  Na,  warte  mall''''  And 
when  he  had  finished,  crept  out  again  without  glanc- 
ing at  the  occupants  of  the  room,  still  mumbling. 

"  It's  the  custom  of  the  country,  I  suppose,"  said 
Anna. 

"  Is  it  ?  Well  the  sooner  we  get  out  of  such  a 
country  the  better.  You  are  determined  to  stay  in 
spite  of  everything .?  I  can  tell  you  I  don't  at  all 
like  my  child  being  here,  but  you  force  me  to  leave 
her  because  you  know  very  well  that  I  can't  let  you 
stay  here  alone." 

Anna  glanced  at  Hilton,  folding  a  dress  with 
immense  deliberation. 

"Oh,  Hilton  knows  what  I  think,"  said  Susie, 
with  a  shrug. 

"  But  she  doesn't  know  what  /  think,"  said  Anna. 
"  I  must  talk  to  you  before  you  leave,  so  please  let 
her  finish  packing  afterwards.  Go  and  have  your 
breakfast,  Hilton." 


I02  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

"Did  you  say  breakfast,  m'm?  "  inquired  Hilton 
with  an  innocent  look. 

"Breakfast.^"  repeated  Susie;  "Poor  thing,  I'd 
like  to  know  how  and  where  she  is  to  get  any." 

"  Well,  then,  go  and  don't  have  your  breakfast," 
said  Anna  impatiently.  She  had  something  to  tell 
Susie  that  must  be  told  soon,  and  was  not  in  a  mood 
to  bear  with  Hilton's  ways. 

"  How  hospitable,"  remarked  Susie  as  the  door 
closed.     "  Really  you  are  a  delightful  hostess." 

Anna  laughed.  "  I  don't  mean  to  be  brutal,"  she 
said,  "  but  if  we  can  exist  on  the  food  without  looking 
tragic  I  suppose  she  can  too,  especially  as  it  is  only 
for  one  day." 

"  My  one  consolation  in  leaving  Letty  here  is  that 
she  will  be  dieted  in  spite  of  herself.  I  expect  you  to 
bring  her  back  quite  thin." 

Anna  got  up  restlessly  and  went  to  the  window. 

"  And  whatever  you  do,  don't  forget  that  the 
return  tickets  only  last  till  the  24th.  But  you'll  be 
sick  of  it  long  before  then." 

Anna  turned  round  and  leaned  her  back  against 
the  window.  The  strong  morning  light  was  on  her 
hair,  and  her  face  was  in  shadow,  yet  Susie  had  a 
feeling  that  she  was  looking  guilty. 

"  Susie,  I've  been  thinking,"  she  said  with  an 
effort. 

"  Really  ?     How  nice." 

"  Yes,  it  was,  for  I  found  out  what  it  is  that  I  must 
do  if  I  mean  to  be  happy.  But  I'm  afraid  that  you 
won't  think  it  nice,  and  will  scold  me.  Now  don't 
scold  me. 

"  Well,  tell  me  what  it  is,"  Susie  lay  staring  at 
Anna's  form  against  the  light,  bracing  herself  to  hear 
something    disagreeable.     She  knew  very  well  from 


VII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  103 

past  experience  that  Anna's  new  plan,  whatever  it 
was,  was  certain  to  be  wild  and  foolish. 

"  I  am  going  to  stay  here." 

"  I  know  you  are,  and  I  know  that  nothing  I  can 
say  will  make  you  change  your  mind.  Peter  is  just 
like  you — the  more  I  show  him  what  a  fool  he's  going 
to  make  of  himself  the  more  he  insists  on  doing  it. 
He  calls  it  determination.  Average  people  like  my- 
self, with  smaller  and  more  easily  managed  brains  than 
you  two  wonders  have  got,  call  it  pigheadedness." 

"  I  don't  mean  only  for  Letty's  holidays  ;  I  mean 
for  good." 

"  For  good .''"  Susie  opened  her  mouth  and  stared 
in  much  the  same  blank  consternation  that  Dellwig 
had  shown  on  hearing  that  she  did  not  like  eating  pig. 

'-'  Don't  be  angry  with  me,"  said  Anna,  coming 
over  to  the  sofa  and  sitting  on  the  floor  by  Susie's 
side  ;  and  she  caught  hold  of  her  hand  and  began  to 
t  Ik  fast  and  eagerly.  "  I  always  intended  spending 
tk.'  ^.noney  in  helping  poor  people,  but  didn't  quite 
km  ^i  in  what  way — now  I  see  my  way  clearly,  and 
I  must,  must  go  it.  Don't  you  remember  in  the 
catechism  there's  the  duty  towards  God  and  the  duty 
towards  one's  neighbour " 

"  Oh,  if  you're  going  to  talk  religion "  said 

Susie,  pulling  away  her  hand  in  great  disgust. 

"  No,  no,  do  listen,"  said  Anna,  catching  it  again 
and  stroking  it  while  she  talked,  to  Susie's  intense 
irritation,  who  hated  being  stroked. 

"  If  you  are  going  into  the  catechism,"  she  said, 
"  Hilton  had  better  come  in  again.  It  might  do  her 
good." 

"No,  no  —  I  only  wanted  to  say  that  there's 
another  duty  not  in  the  catechism,  greater  than  the 
duty  towards  one's  neighbour " 


I04  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

"  My  dear  Anna,  it  isn't  likely  that  you  can 
improve  on  the  catechism.  And  fancy  wanting  to, 
at  breakfast  time.  Don't  stroke  my  hand — it  gives 
me  the  fidgets." 

"  But  I  want  to  explain  things — do  listen.  The 
duty  the  catechism  leaves  out  is  the  duty  towards 
one's  self.     You  can't  get  away  from  your  duties,  you 

know,  Susie "     And  she  knit  her  brows  in  her 

effort  to  follow  out  her  thought. 

"  My  goodness,  as  though  I  ever  tried  !  If  ever 
a  poor  woman  did  her  duty,  I'm  that  woman." 

" — and  I  believe  that  if  I  do  those  two  duties, 
towards  my  neighbour  and  myself,  I  shall  be  doing 
my  duty  towards  God." 

Susie  gave  her  body  an  impatient  twist.  She 
thought  it  positively  indecent  to  speak  of  sacred 
things  so  early  in  the  morning  in  cold  blood. 
"What  has  this  drivel  to  do  with  your  stopping 
here  ? "  she  asked  angrily. 

"  It  has  everything  to  do  with  it — my  duty  towards 
myself  is  to  be  as  happy  and  as  good  as  possible,  and 
my  duty  towards  my  neighbour " 

"  Oh,  bother  your  neighbour  and  your  duty ! " 
cried  Susie  in  exasperation. 

" — is  to  help  him  to  be  good  and  happy  too." 

"  Him  ?  Her,  I  hope.  Don't  forget  decency, 
my  dear.  A  girl  has  no  duties  whatever  towards 
male  neighbours." 

"  Well,  I  do  mean  her,"  said  Anna,  looking  up 
and  laughing. 

"  So  you  think  that  by  living  here  you'll  make 
yourself  happy  ? " 

"  Yes,  I  do — I  do  think  so.  Perhaps  I  am  wrong, 
and  shall  find  out  I'm  wrong,  but  I  must  try," 

"  You'll  leave  all  your  friends  and  relations  and 


VII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  105 

stay  in  this  God-forsaken  place  where  you  can't  even 
live  like  a  lady  ?  " 

"  Uncle  Joachim  said  it  was  my  one  chance  of 
leading  the  better  life." 

*'  Unutterable  old  fool,"  said  Susie  with  bitterest 
contempt.  "  That  money,  then,  is  going  to  be  thrown 
away  on  Germans.?  As  though  there  weren't  poor 
people  enough  in  England,  if  your  ambition  is  to  pose 
as  a  benefactress  !  " 

"Oh,  I  don't  want  to  pose  as  anything — I  only 
want  to  help  unhappy  wretches,"  cried  Anna,  laying 
her  cheek  caressingly  on  Susie's  unwilling  hand. 
"  Now,  don't  scold  me — forgive  me  if  I'm  silly, 
and  be  patient  with  me  till  I  find  out  that  I've  made 
a  goose  of  myself  and  come  creeping  back  to  you 
and  Peter.  But  I  must  do  it — I  must  try — I  ijoill  do 
what  I  think  is  right." 

"  And  who  are  the  wretches,  pray,  who  are  to  be 
made  happy  "? " 

"  Oh,  those  I  am  sorriest  for — that  no  one  else 
helps  —  the  genteel  ones,  if  I  can  only  get  at 
them." 

"  I  never  heard  of  genteel  wretches,"  said  Susie. 

Anna  laughed  again.  "  I  was  thinking  it  all  out 
in  the  forest  this  morning,"  she  said,  "  and  it 
suddenly  flashed  across  me  that  this  big  roomy  house 
was  never  meant  not  to  be  used,  and  that  instead 
of  going  to  see  poor  people,  and  giving  them  money 
in  the  ordinary  way,  it  would  be  so  much  better  to 
let  women  of  the  better  classes,  who  have  no  money, 
and  who  are  dependent  and  miserable,  come  and 
live  with  me  and  share  mine,  and  have  everything 
that  I  have — exactly  the  same,  with  no  difference  of 
any  sort.  There  is  room  for  twelve  at  least,  and 
wouldn't  it  be  beautiful  to  make  twelve  people,  who 


io6  THE  BENEFACTRESS  cFiAP. 

had  lost  all  hope  and  all  courage,  happy  for  the  rest 
of  their  days?" 

*' Oh,  the  girl's  mad!"  cried  Susie,  springing  up 
from  the  sofa,  no  longer  able  to  bear  herself.  She 
began  to  walk  about  the  room,  not  knowing  what  to 
say  or  do,  absolutely  without  sympathy  for  beneficent 
impulses,  at  all  times  possessed  of  a  fine  scorn  for 
ideals,  feeling  that  no  argument  would  be  of  any 
avail  with  an  Estcourt  whose  mind  was  made  up, 
shocked  that  good  money,  so  hard  to  get,  and  so 
very  precious  when  got,  should  be  thrown  away  in 
such  a  manner,  bewildered  by  the  difficulties  of  the 
situation,  for  how  could  a  girl  of  Anna's  age  live 
alone,  and  direct  a  house  full  of  objects  of  charity  ? 
Would  the  objects  themselves  be  a  sufficient  chaperon- 
age  ?  Would  her  friends  at  home  think  so?  Would 
they  not  blame  her,  Susie,  for  having  allov/ed  all 
this  ?  As  though  she  could  prevent  it !  Or  would 
they  expect  her  to  stay  with  Anna  in  this  place 
till  she  should  marry?  As  though  anybody  would 
ever  marry  such  a  lunatic!  "Mad,  mad,  mad!" 
cried  Susie,  wringing  her  hands. 

"  I  was  afraid  that  you  wouldn't  like  it,"  said  the 
culprit  on  the  floor,  watching  her  with  a  distressed 
face. 

"  Like  it  ?  Oh — mad,  mad  !  "  And  she  con- 
tinued to  walk  and  wring  her  hands. 

"Well,  you'll  stay,  then,"  she  said,  suddenly 
stopping  in  front  of  Anna,  "I  know  you  well  enough, 
and  shall  waste  no  breath  arguing.  That  infatuated 
old  man's  money  has  turned  your  head — I  didn't 
know  it  was  so  weak.  But  look  into  your  heart 
when  I  am  gone  —  you'll  have  time  enough  and 
quiet  enough  —  and  ask  yourself  honestly  whether 
what  you  are  going  to  do  is  a  proper  way  of  paying 


VII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  107 

back  all  I  have  done  for  you,  and  all  the  expense 
you  have  been.  You  know  what  my  wishes  are 
about  you,  and  you  don't  care  one  jot.  Gratitude  ! 
There  isn't  a  spark  of  it  in  your  whole  body. 
Never  was  there  a  more  selfish  creature,  and  I  can't 
believe  that  ingratitude  and  selfishness  are  the  stuff 
that  makes  saints.  Don't  dare  to  talk  any  more  rot 
about  duty  to  your  neighbour  to  me.  An  English- 
woman to  come  and  spend  her  money  on  German 
charities " 

"It's  German  money,"  murmured  Anna. 

"And  to  live  here  —  to  live  here  —  oh,  mad, 
mad!"  And  Susie's  indignation  threatening  to 
choke  her,  she  resumed  her  walk  and  her  gesticula- 
tions, her  high  heels  tapping  furiously  on  the  bare 
boards. 

She  longed  to  take  Letty  and  Miss  Leech  away 
with  her  that  very  morning,  and  punish  Anna  by 
leaving  her  entirely  alone  ;  but  she  did  not  dare 
because  of  Peter.  Peter  was  always  on  Anna's  side 
when  there  were  differences,  and  would  be  sure  to 
do  something  dreadful  when  he  heard  of  it — perhaps 
come  and  live  here  too,  and  never  go  back  to  his 
wife  any  more.  Oh,  these  half  Germans !  Why 
had  she  married  into  a  family  with  such  a  taint  in 
its  blood  ?  "  You  will  have  to  have  some  one 
here,"  she  said,  turning  on  Anna,  Vv^ho  still  sat  on 
the  floor  by  the  sofa,  a  look  on  her  face  of  apology 
and  penitence  mixed  with  firmness  that  Susie  well 
knew.  "  How  can  you  stay  here  alone }  I  shall 
leave  Miss  Leech  with  you  till  the  end  of  the 
holidays,  though  I  hate  to  seem  to  encourage  you, 
but  then  you  see  I  do  my  duty  and  always  have, 
though  I  don't  talk  about  it.  When  I  get  home  I 
shall  look  for  some  elderly  woman  who  won't  mind 


io8  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

coming  here  and  seeing  that  you  don't  make  your- 
self too  much  of  a  by-word,  and  the  day  she  comes 
you  are  to  send  me  back  my  child." 

"  It  is  good  of  you  to  let  me  keep  Letty,  dear 
Susie " 

"  Dear  Susie  !  " 

"  But  I  don't  mean  to  be  a  by-word,  as  you  call 
it,"  continued  Anna,  the  ghost  of  a  smile  lurking  in 
her  eyes,  "  and  I  don't  want  an  Englishwoman. 
What  use  would  she  be  here .''  She  wouldn't  under- 
stand if  it  was  a  German  by-word  that  I  turned 
into.  I  thought  of  asking  the  parson  how  I  had 
better  set  about  getting  a  German  lady  —  a  grave 
and  sober  female,  advanced  in  years,  as  Uncle 
Joachim  wrote," 

"  Oh,  Uncle  Joachim "  Susie  could  hardly  en- 
dure to  hear  the  name.  It  was  that  odious  old  man 
who  had  filled  Anna's  head  with  these  ideas.  To  leave 
her  money  was  admirable,  but  to  influence  a  weak 
girl's  mind  with  his  wishy-washy  German  philosophy 
about  the  better  life  and  such  rubbish,  as  he 
evidently  had  done  during  those  excursions  with 
her,  was  conduct  so  shameful  that  she  found  no 
words  strong  enough  to  express  her  opinion  of  it. 
Every  one  would  blame  her  for  what  had  happened, 
every  one  would  jeer  at  her,  and  say  that  the  moment 
an  opportunity  of  escape  had  presented  itself  Anna 
had  seized  it,  preferring  an  existence  of  loneliness 
and  hardship  —  any  sort  of  existence  —  to  all  the 
pleasures  of  civilised  life  in  Susie's  company.  Peter 
would  certainly  be  very  angry  with  her,  and  re- 
proach her  with  not  having  made  Anna  happy 
enough.  Happy  enough !  The  girl  had  cost  her  at 
least  three  hundred  a  year,  what  with  her  expensive 
education   and  all  her  clothes  since   she  came  out  ; 


VII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  109 

and  if  three  hundred  good  pounds  spent  on  a  glrJ 
could  not  make  her  happy  she'd  like  to  know  what 
could.  And  no  one — not  one  of  those  odious 
people  in  London  whom  she  secretly  hated — would 
have  a  single  word  of  censure  for  Anna.  No  one 
ever  had.  All  her  vagaries  and  absurdities  during 
the  last  few  years  when  she  had  been  so  provoking 
had  been  smiled  at— had  been,  Susie  knew,  put  down 
to  her  treatment  of  her.  Treatment  of  her,  indeed ! 
The  thought  of  these  things  made  Susie  writhe. 
She  had  been  looking  forward  to  the  next  season,  to 
having  her  pretty  sister-in-law  with  her  in  the  happy 
mood  she  had  been  in  since  she  heard  of  her  good 
fortune,  and  had  foreseen  nothing  but  advantages  to 
herself  from  Anna's  presence  in  her  house — an  Anna 
spending  and  not  being  spent  upon,  and  no  doubt 
to  be  persuaded  to  share  the  expenses  of  house- 
keeping. And  now  she  must  go  home  by  herself  to 
blame,  scoldings,  and  derision.  The  prospect  was 
almost  more  than  she  could  bear.  She  went  to  the 
door,  opened  it,  and  turning  to  Anna  fired  a  parting 
shot.  "  Let  no  one,"  she  said,  her  voice  shaken  by 
deepest  disgust,  "  who  wants  to  be  happy  ever 
spend  a  penny  on  her  husband's  relations." 

And  then  she  called  Hilton  ;  nor  did  she  leave 
off  calling  till  Hilton  appeared,  and  so  prevented 
Anna  from  saying  another  word. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

But  if  Susie's  rage  was  such  that  she  refused  to  say 
good-bye,  and  terrified  Miss  Leech  while  she  was 
waiting  in  the  hall  for  the  carriage  by  dark  allusions 
to  strait -waistcoats,  when  the  parson  was  taken 
into  Anna's  confidence  after  dinner  on  the  following 
night  his  raptures  knew  no  bounds.  "  Liehes,  edelden- 
kendes  Frdulein!''  he  burst  out,  clasping  his  hands 
and  gazing  with  a  moist,  ecstatic  eye  at  this  young 
sprig  of  piety.  He  was  a  good  man,  not  very 
learned,  not  very  refined,  sentimental  exceedingly, 
and  much  inclined  to  become  tearfully  eloquent  on 
such  subjects  as  die  Hebe  kleine  Kinder^  die  herrliche 
Natur^  die  Frau  als  Schutzengel,  and  the  sacredness 
of  das  Familienlehen. 

Anna  felt  that  he  was  the  only  person  at  hand 
who  could  perhaps  help  her  to  find  twelve  dejected 
ladies  willing  to  be  made  happy,  and  had  unfolded 
her  plan  to  him  as  tersely  as  possible  in  her  stum- 
bling German,  with  none  of  those  accompanying 
digressions  into  the  question  of  feelings  that  Susie 
stigmatised  as  drivel  ;  and  she  sat  uncomfortable 
enough  while  he  burst  forth  into  praises  that  would 
not  end  of  her  goodness  and  nobleness.  It  is  hard 
to  look  anything  but  fatuous  when  somebody  is 
extolling  your  virtues  to  your  face,  and   she   could 


CHAP.  VIII     THE  BENEFACTRESS  1 1 1 

not  help  both  looking  and  feeling  foolish  during  his 
extravagant  glorification.  She  did  not  doubt  his 
sincerity,  and  indeed  he  was  absolutely  sincere,  but 
she  wished  that  he  would  be  less  flowery  and  less 
long,  and  would  skip  the  raptures  and  get  on  to 
the  main  subject,  which  was  practical  advice. 

She  wore  the  simple  white  dress  that  had  caused 
such  a  sensation  in  the  neighbourhood,  a  garment 
that  hung  in  long,  soft  folds,  accentuating  her  slender 
length  of  limb.  Her  bright  hair  was  parted  and 
tucked  behind  her  ears.  Everything  about  her 
breathed  an  absolute  want  of  self-consciousness  and 
vanity,  a  perfect  freedom  from  the  least  thought  of 
the  impression  she  might  be  making  ;  yet  she  was 
beautiful,  and  the  good  man,  observing  her  beauty, 
and  supposing  from  what  she  had  just  told  him  an 
equal  beauty  of  character,  for  ever  afterwards  when 
he  thought  of  angels  on  quiet  Sunday  evenings  in 
his  garden,  clothed  them  as  Anna  was  clothed  that 
night,  not  even  shrinking  from  the  pretty,  bare 
shoulders  and  scantily-sleeved  arms,  but  facing  them 
with  a  courage  worthy  of  a  man,  however  doubtfully 
it  might  become  a  pastor. 

His  wife,  in  her  best  dress,  which  was  also  her 
tightest,  sat  on  the  edge  of  a  chair  some  way  ofl*, 
marvelling  greatly  at  many  things.  She  could  not 
hear  what  it  was  Anna  had  said  to  set  her  husband  off 
exclaiming,  because  the  governess  persisted  in  trying 
to  talk  German  to  her,  and  would  not  be  satisfied 
with  vague  replies.  She  was  disappointed  by  the 
sudden  disappearance  of  the  sister-in-law — gone  before 
she  had  shown  herself  to  a  single  soul ;  astonished 
that  she  had  not  been  requested  to  sit  on  the  sofa,  in 
which  place  of  honour  the  young  Fraulein  sprawled 
in  a  way  that  would  certainly  ruin  her  clothes  ;  dis- 


112  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

gusted  that  she  had  not  been  pressed  at  table — nay, 
not  even  asked — to  partake  of  every  dish  a  second 
time  ;  indeed,  no  one  had  seemed  to  notice  or  care 
whether  she  ate  anything  at  all.  These  were  strange 
ways.  And  where  were  the  Dellwigs,  those  great 
people,  accustomed  to  patronise  her  because  she  was 
the  parson's  wife.^  Was  it  possible  that  they  had 
not  been  invited  .''  Were  there  then  quarrels  already  ? 
She  could  not  of  course  dream  that  Anna  would 
never  have  thought  of  asking  her  inspector  and  his 
wife  to  dinner,  and  that  in  her  ignorance  she  re- 
garded the  parson  as  a  person  on  an  altogether 
higher  social  level  than  the  inspector.  These  things, 
joined  to  conjectures  as  to  the  probable  price  by  the 
yard  of  Anna's,  Letty's,  and  Miss  Leech's  clothes, 
gave  Frau  Manske  more  food  for  reflection  than  she 
had  had  for  years  ;  and  she  sat  turning  them  over 
slowly  in  her  mind  in  the  intervals  between  Miss 
Leech's  sentences,  while  her  dress,  which  was  of  silk, 
creaked  ominously  with  every  painful  breath  she 
drew. 

"  The  best  way  to  act,"  said  the  parson,  when 
he  had  exhausted  the  greater  part  of  his  raptures, 
"  will  be  to  advertise  in  a  newspaper  of  a  Christian 
character." 

"  But  not  in  my  name,"  said  Anna. 

"  No,  no,  we  must  be  discreet — we  must  be  very 
discreet.  The  advertisement  must  be  drawn  up  with 
skill.  I  will  make,  simultaneously,  inquiries  among 
my  colleagues  in  the  holy  office,  but  there  must  also 
be  an  advertisement.  What  would  the  gracious 
Miss's  opinion  be  of  the  desirability  of  referring  all 
applicants,  in  the  first  instance,  to  me.?  " 

"Why,  I  think  it  would  be  an  excellent  plan,  if 
you  do  not  mind  the  trouble." 


VIII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  113 

"  Trouble  !  Joy  fills  me  at  the  thought  of  taking 
part  in  this  good  work.  Little  did  1  think  that  our 
poor  corner  of  the  fatherland  was  to  become  a  holy- 
place,  a  blessed  refuge  for  the  world- worn,  a  nook 
fragrant  with  charity " 

"  No,  not  charity,"  interposed  Anna. 

"  Whose  perfume,"  continued  the  parson,  deter- 
mined to  finish  his  sentence, — "  whose  perfume  will 
ascend  day  and  night  to  the  attentive  heavens.  But 
such  are  the  celestial  surprises  Providence  keeps  in 
reserve  and  springs  upon  us  when  we  least  expect  it." 
'*  Yes,"  said  Anna.  "  But  what  shall  we  put  in 
the  advertisement  ^ '" 

"  Achja,  the  advertisement.  In  the  contemplation 
of  this  beautiful  scheme  I  forget  the  advertisement." 
And  again  the  moisture  of  ecstasy  suffused  his 
eyes,  and  again  he  clasped  his  hands  and  gazed  at 
her  with  his  head  on  one  side,  almost  as  though  the 
young  lady  herself  were  the  beautiful  scheme. 

Anna  got  up  and  went  to  the  writing-table  to 
fetch  a  pencil  and  a  sheet  of  paper,  anxious  to  keep 
him  to  the  point  ;  and  the  parson,  watching  the 
graceful  white  figure,  was  more  than  ever  struck  by 
her  resemblance  to  his  idea  of  angels.  He  did  not 
consider  how  easy  it  was  to  look  like  a  being  from 
another  world,  a  creature  purified  of  every  earthly 
grossness,  to  eyes  accustomed  to  behold  the  redundant 
exuberance  of  his  own  excellent  wife. 

She  brought  the  paper,  and  sat  down  again  at  the 
table  on  which  the  lamp  stood.  "  How  does  one 
write  any  sort  of  advertisement  in  German  }  "  she 
said,  "  I  could  not  write  one  for  a  housemaid.  And 
this  one  must  be  done  so  carefully." 

'  Very  true  ;  for,  alas,  even  ladies  are  sometimes 
not    all    that    they   profess    to    be.      Sad   that   in    a 

I 


114  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

Christian  country  there  should  be  impostors.  Doubly 
sad  that  there  should  be  any  of  the  female  sex." 

"  Very  sad,"  said  Anna,  smiling.  "  You  must 
tell  me  which  are  the  impostors  among  those  that 
answer." 

"  Ach^  it  will  not  be  easy,"  said  the  parson,  whose 
experience  of  ladies  was  limited,  and  who  began  to 
see  that  he  was  taking  upon  himself  responsibilities 
that  threatened  to  become  grave.  Suppose  he 
recommended  an  applicant  who  afterwards  departed 
with  the  gracious  Miss's  spoons  in  her  bag  }  "  Ach^ 
it  will  not  be  easy,"  he  said,  shaking  his  head. 

"Oh,  well,"  said  Anna,  "we  must  risk  the  im- 
postors. There  may  not  be  any  at  all.  How  would 
you  begin  } " 

The  parson  threw  himself  back  in  his  chair,  folded 
his  hands,  cast  up  his  eyes  to  the  ceiling,  and  medi- 
tated. Anna  waited,  pencil  in  hand,  ready  to  write 
at  his  dictation.  Frau  Manske  at  the  other  end  of 
the  room  was  straining  her  ears  to  hear  what  was 
going  on,  but  Miss  Leech,  desirous  both  of  enter- 
taining her  and  of  practising  her  German,  would  not 
cease  from  her  spasmodic  talk,  even  expecting  her 
mistakes  to  be  corrected.  And  there  were  no 
refreshments,  no  glasses  of  cooling  beer  being  handed 
round,  no  liquid  consolation  of  any  sort,  not  even 
seltzer  water.     She  regarded  her  evening  as  a  failure. 

"  A  Christian  lady  of  noble  sentiments,"  dictated 
the  parson,  apparently  reading  the  words  off  the 
ceiling,  "  offers  a  home  in  her  house " 

"  Is  this  the  advertisement  }  "  asked  Anna. 

"  — offers  a  home  in  her  house " 

"  I  don't  quite  like  the  beginning,"  hesitated 
Anna.  "  I  would  rather  leave  out  about  the  noble 
sentiments." 


viir  THE  BENEFACTRESS  115 

"  As  the  gracious  one  pleases.  Modesty  can 
never  be  anything  but  an  ornament.  '  A  Christian 
lady 

"  But  why  a  Christian  lady  ?  Why  not  simply  a 
lady  .^  Are  there,  then,  heathen  ladies  about,  that 
you  insist  on  the  Christian  ? " 

"  Worse,  worse  than  heathen,"  replied  the  parson, 
sitting  up  straight,  and  fixing  eyeballs  suddenly 
grown  fiery  on  her  ;  and  his  voice  fell  to  a  hissing 
whisper,  in  strange  contrast  to  his  previous  honeyed 
tones.  "  The  heathen  live  in  far-off  lands,  where 
they  keep  quiet  till  our  missionaries  gather  them  into 
the  Church's  fold — but  here,  here  in  our  midst,  here 
everywhere,  taking  the  money  from  our  pockets, 
nay,  the  very  bread  from  our  mouths,  are  the 
Jews.''' 

Impossible  to  describe  the  tone  of  fear  and  hatred 
with  which  this  word  was  pronounced. 

Anna  gazed  at  him,  mystified.  "  The  Jews  ?  " 
she  echoed.  One  of  her  greatest  friends  at  home 
was  a  Jew,  a  delightful  person,  the  mere  recollection 
of  whom  made  her  smile,  so  witty  and  charming  and 
kind  was  he.  And  of  Jews  in  general  she  could  not 
remember  to  have  heard  anything  at  all. 

"  But  not  only  money  from  our  pockets  and  bread 
from  our  mouths,"  continued  the  parson  leaning 
forward,  his  light  grey  eyes  opened  to  their  widest 
extent,  and  speaking  in  a  whisper  that  made  her  flesh 
begin  the  process  known  as  creeping,  "  but  blood — 
blood  from  our  veins." 

"Blood  from  your  veins .f*"  she  repeated  faintly. 
It  sounded  horrid.  It  offended  her  ears.  It  had 
nothing  to  do  with  the  advertisement.  The  strange 
light  in  his  eyes  made  her  think  of  fanaticism,  cruelty, 
and  the  Middle  Ages.     The  mildest  of  men  in  general, 


ii6  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

as  she  found  later  on,  rabidness  seized  him  at  the 
mere  mention  of  Jews. 

"  Blood,"  he  hissed,  "  from  the  veins  of  Christians, 
for  the  performance  of  their  unholy  rites.  Did  the 
gracious  one  never  hear  of  ritual  murders  }  " 

"  No,"  said  Anna,  shrinking  back  the  nearer  he 
leaned  towards  her,  "  never  in  my  life.  Don't  tell 
me  now,  for  it — it  sounds  interesting.  I  should  like 
to  hear  about  it  all  another  time.  '  A  Christian  lady 
offers  her  home,'  "  she  went  on  quickly,  scribbling 
that  much  down,  and  then  looking  at   him  inquir- 

i"giy- 

"  ^'Ich  ja,''  he  said  in  his  natural  voice,  leaning 
back  in  his  chair  and  reducing  his  eyes  to  their 
normal  size,  "  I  forget  again  the  advertisement.  '  A 
Christian  lady  offers  her  home  to  others  of  her  sex 
and  station  who  are  without  means 

"  And  without  friends,  and  without  hope,"  added 
Anna,  writing. 

"  Gul^  gut^  sehr  gut'' 

"  She  has  room  in  her  house  in  the  country," 
Anna  went  on,  writing  as  she  spoke,  "  for  twelve 
such  ladies,  and  will  be  glad  to  share  with  them  all 
that  she  possesses  of  fortune  and  happiness." 

"  Gut^  guiy  sehr  gut.'' 

"  Is  the  German  correct  ^  " 

"  Quite  correct.  I  would  add  '  Strictest  inquiries 
will  be  made  before  acceptance  of  any  application  by 
Herr  Pastor  Manske  of  Lohm,  to  whom  all  letters 
are  to  be  addressed.  Applicants  must  be  ladies  of 
good  family,  who  have  fallen  on  evil  days  by  the  will 
of  God.'  " 

Anna  wrote  this  down  as  far  as  days,  after  which 
she  put  a  full  stop. 

"It    pleases    me    not    entirely,"    said     Manske, 


VIII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  117 

musing  ;    "  the  language    is    not    sufficiently   noble. 
Noble  schemes  should  be  alluded  to  in  noble  words." 

"  But  not  in  an  advertisement." 

"  Why  not  ?  We  ought  not  to  hide  our  good 
thoughts  from  our  fellows,  but  rather  open  our  hearts, 
pour  out  our  feelings,  spend  freely  all  that  we  have 
in  us  of  virtue  and  piety,  for  the  edification  and 
exhilaration  of  others." 

"  But  not  in  an  advertisement.  I  don't  want  to 
exhilarate  the  public." 

"  And  why  not  exhilarate  the  public,  dear  Miss  ? 
Is  it  not  composed  of  units  of  like  passions  to  our- 
selves.? Units  on  the  way  to  heaven,  units  bowed 
down  by  the  same  sorrows,  cheered  by  the  same 
hopes,  torn  asunder  by  the  same  temptations,  as  the 
gracious  one  and  myself.''"  And  immediately  he 
launched  forth  into  a  flood  of  eloquence  about  units  ; 
for  in  Germany  sermons  are  all  extempore,  and  the 
clergy,  from  constant  practice,  acquire  a  fatal  fluency 
of  speech,  bursting  out  in  the  week  on  the  least 
provocation  into  preaching,  and  not  by  any  known 
means  to  be  stopped. 

"  Oh — words,  words,  words  !  "  thought  Anna, 
waiting  till  he  should  have  finished.  His  wife, 
hearing  the  well-known  rapid  speech  of  his  inspired 
moments,  glowed  with  pride.  "  My  Adolf  surpasses 
himself,"  she  thought  ;   "  the  Miss  must  wonder." 

The  Miss  did  wonder.  She  sat  and  wondered, 
her  elbows  on  the  arms  of  the  chair,  her  finger  tips 
joined  together,  and  her  eyes  fixed  on  her  finger  tips. 
She  did  not  like  to  look  at  him,  because,  knowing 
how  different  was  the  efi^ect  produced  on  her  to  that 
which  he  of  course  imagined,  she  was  sorry  for  him. 

"  It  is  so  good  of  you  to  help  me,"  she  said  with 
gentle    irrelevance    when    the    longed-for    pause    at 


ii8  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

length  came.  "  There  was  something  else  that  I 
wanted  to  consult  you  about.  I  must  look  for  a 
companion — an  elderly  German  lady,  who  will  help 
me  in  the  housekeeping," 

"  Yes,  yes,  I  comprehend.  But  would  not  the 
twelve  be  sufficient  companions,  and  helps  in  the 
housekeeping  ?  " 

"  No,  because  I  would  not  like  them  to  think  that 
I  want  anything  done  for  me  in  return  for  their 
home.  I  want  them  to  do  exactly  what  makes  them 
happiest.  They  will  all  have  had  sad  lives,  and  must 
waste  no  more  time  in  doing  things  they  don't  quite 
like." 

"  Ah — noble,  noble,"  murmured  the  parson,  quite 
as  unpractical  as  Anna,  and  fascinated  by  the  very 
vagueness  of  her  plan  of  benevolence. 

"  The  companion  I  wish  to  find  would  be  another 
sort  of  person,  and  would  help  me  in  return  for  a 
salary." 

"  Certainly — I  comprehend." 

"  I  thought  perhaps  you  would  tell  me  how  to 
advertise  for  such  a  person  ?  " 

"Surely,  surely.      My  wife  has  a  sister " 

He  paused.  Anna  looked  up  quickly.  She  had 
not  reckoned  with  the  possibility  of  his  wife's  having 
sisters. 

"  Lieber  SchatZy'  he  called  to  his  wife,  "  what 
does  thy  sister  Helena  do  now.^  " 

Frau  Manske  got  up  and  came  over  to  them  with 
the  alacrity  of  relief.  "  What  dost  thou  say,  dear 
Adolf.''"  she  asked,  laying  her  hand  on  his  shoulder. 
He  took  it  in  his,  stroked  it,  kissed  it,  and  finally  put 
his  arm  round  her  waist  and  held  it  there  while  he 
talked  ;  all  to  the  exceeding  joy  of  Letty,  to  whom 
such  proceedings  had  the  charm  of  absolute  freshness. 


VIII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  119 

"Thy  sister  Helena  —  Is  she  iit  present  Irt  the 
parental  house  ? "  he  asked,  looking  up  at  her  fondly, 
warmed  into  an  affection  even  greater  than  ordinary 
by  the  circumstance  of  having  spectators. 

Frau  Manske  was  not  sure.  She  would  write  and 
inquire.  Anna  proposed  that  she  should  sit  down, 
but  the  parson  playfully  held  her  closer.  "  This  is 
my  guardian  angel,"  he  explained,  smiling  beatifically 
at  her,  "  the  faithful  mother  of  my  children,  now 
grown  up  and  gone  their  several  ways.  Does  the 
gracious  Miss  remember  the  immortal  lines  of  Schiller 
'  Ehret  die  Frauen^  sie  flechten  und  'xeben  himmlische 
Rosen  ins  irdische  Leben  ?  '  Such  has  been  the  occu- 
pation of  this  dear  wife,  only  interrupted  by  her 
occasional  visits  to  bathing  resorts,  since  the  day, 
more  than  twenty-five  years  ago,  when  she  consented 
to  tread  with  me  the  path  leading  heavenwards.  Not 
a  day  has  there  been,  except  when  she  was  at  the 
seaside,  without  its  roses." 

"  Oh,"  said  Anna,  She  felt  that  the  remark  was 
not  at  the  height  of  the  situation,  and  added,  "  How — 
how  interesting."  This  also  struck  her  as  inadequate  ; 
but  all  further  inspiration  failing  her,  she  was  reduced 
to  the  silent  sympathy  of  smiles. 

"  Ten  children  did  the  Lord  bless  us  with,"  con- 
tinued the  parson,  expanding  into  confidences,  "  and 
six  it  was  His  will  again  to  remove." 

"The  drains "  murmured  Frau  Matiske. 

"  Yes,  truly  the  drains  in  the  town  where  we  lived 
then  were  bad,  very  bad.  But  one  must  not  question 
the  wisdom  of  Providence." 

"  No,  but  one  might  mend "     Anna  stopped, 

feeling  that  under  some  circumstances  even  the  mend- 
ing of  drains  might  be  impious.  She  had  heard  so 
much  about  piety  and  Providence  within  the  last  two 


I20  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

hours  that  she  was  confused,  and  was  no  longer  clear 
as  to  the  exact  limit  of  conduct  beyond  which  a 
flying  in  the  face  of  Providence  might  be  said  to 
begin. 

But  the  parson,  clasping  his  wife  to  his  side,  paid 
no  heed  to  anything  she  might  be  saying,  for  he  was 
already  well  on  in  a  detailed  account  of  the  personal 
appearance,  habits,  and  career  of  his  four  remaining 
children,  and  dwelt  so  fondly  on  each  in  turn  that  he 
forgot  Sister  Helena  and  the  second  advertisement ; 
and  when  he  had  explained  all  their  numerous 
excellences  and  harmless  idiosyncrasies,  including 
their  preferences  in  matters  of  food  and  drink,  he 
abruptly  quitted  this  topic,  and  proceeded  to  expound 
Anna's  scheme  to  his  wife,  who  had  listened  with  ill- 
concealed  impatience  to  the  first  part  of  his  discourse, 
consumed  as  she  was  with  curiosity  to  hear  what  it 
was  that  Anna  had  confided  to  him. 

So  Anna  had  to  listen  to  the  raptures  all  over 
again.  The  eager  interest  of  the  wife  disturbed  her. 
She  doubted  whether  Frau  Manske  had  any  real 
sympathy  with  her  plan.  Her  inquisitiveness  was 
unquestionable  ;  but  Anna  felt  that  opening  her  heart 
to  the  parson  and  opening  it  to  his  wife  were  two 
different  things.  Though  he  was  wordy,  he  was 
certainly  enthusiastic  ;  his  wife,  on  the  other  hand, 
appeared  to  be  chiefly  interested  in  the  question  of 
cost.  *'  The  cost  will  be  colossal,"  she  said,  survey- 
ing Anna  from  head  to  foot.  "  But  the  gracious 
Miss  is  rich,"  she  added. 

Anna  began  to  examine  her  finger  tips  again. 

On  the  way  home  through  the  dark  fields,  after 
having  criticised  each  dish  of  the  dinner  and  ex- 
pressed the  opinion  that  the  entertainment  was  not 
worthy  of  such  a  wealthy  lady,  Frau  Manske  observed 


vrii  THE  BENEFACTRESS  121 

to  her  husband  that  It  was  true,  then,  what  she  had 
always  heard  of  the  English,  that  they  were  peculiarly 
liable  to  prolonged  attacks  of  craziness. 

"  Craziness  !  Thou  callest  this  craziness  ?  Is  it 
my  wife,  the  wife  of  a  pastor,  that  I  hear  applying 
such  a  word  to  so  beautiful,  so  Christian,  a  scheme  ?  " 

"  But  the  good  money — to  give  it  all  away.  Yes, 
it  is  very  Christian,  but  it  is  also  crazy." 

"  Woman,  shut  thy  mouth  !  "  cried  the  parson, 
beside  himself  with  indignation  at  hearing  such  senti- 
ments from  such  lips. 

Clearly  Frau  Manske  was  not  at  that  moment 
engaged  with  her  roses. 


CHAPTER    IX 

The  next  morning  early,  Anna  went  over  to  the 
farm  to  ask  Dellwig  to  lend  her  any  newspapers  he 
might  have.  She  was  anxious  to  advertise  as  soon  as 
possible  for  a  companion,  and  now  that  she  knew  of 
the  existence  of  Sister  Helena  thought  it  better  to 
write  this  advertisement  without  the  parson's  aid, 
copying  any  other  one  of  the  sort  that  she  might  see 
in  the  papers.  Until  she  had  secured  the  services  of 
a  German  lady  who  would  tell  her  how  to  set  about 
the  reforms  she  intended  making  in  her  house,  she 
was  perfectly  helpless.  She  wanted  to  put  her  home 
in  order  quickly,  so  that  the  twelve  unhappy  ones 
should  not  be  kept  waiting  ;  and  there  were  many 
things  to  be  done.  Servants,  furniture,  everything, 
was  necessary,  and  she  did  not  know  where  such 
things  were  to  be  had.  She  did  not  even  know  where 
washerwomen  were  obtainable,  and  Frau  Dellwig 
never  seemed  to  be  at  home  when  she  sent  for  her,  or 
went  to  her  seeking  information.  On  Good  Friday, 
after  Susie's  departure,  she  had  sent  a  message  to  the 
farm  desiring  the  attendance  of  the  inspector's  wife, 
whom  she  wished  to  consult  about  the  dinner  to  be 
prepared  for  the  Manskes,  all  provisions  apparently 
passing  through  Frau  Dellwig's  hands  ;  and  she  had 
been  told  that  the  lady  was  at  church.     On  Saturday 


CHAP.  IX        THE  BENEFACTRESS  123 

morning,  disturbed  by  the  emptiness  of  her  larder 
and  the  imminence  of  her  guests,  she  had  gone  her- 
self to  the  farm,  but  was  told  that  the  lady  was  in  the 
cow-sheds — in  which  cow-shed  nobody  exactly  knew. 
Anna  had  been  forced  to  ask  Dellwig  about  the  food. 
On  Sunday  she  took  Letty  with  her,  abashed  by  the 
whisperings  and  starings  she  had  had  to  endure  when 
she  went  alone.  Nor  on  this  occasion  did  she  see 
the  inspector's  wife,  and  she  began  to  wonder  what 
had  become  of  her. 

The  Dellwigs'  wrath  and  amazement  when  they 
found  that  the  parson  and  his  wife  had  been  invited 
to  dinner  and  they  themselves  left  out  was  indescrib- 
able. Never  had  such  an  insult  been  offered  them. 
They  had  always  been  the  first  people  of  their  class 
in  the  place,  always  held  their  heads  up  and  conde- 
scended to  the  clergy,  always  been  helped  first  at  table, 
gone  first  through  doors,  sat  in  the  right-hand  corners 
of  sofas.  If  he  was  furious,  she  was  still  more  so, 
filled  with  venom  and  hatred  unutterable  for  the 
innocent,  but  it  must  be  added  overjoyed,  Frau 
Manske  ;  and  though  her  own  interest  demanded  it, 
she  was  altogether  unable  to  bring  herself  to  meet 
Anna  for  the  purpose,  as  she  knew,  of  being  consulted 
about  the  menu  to  be  offered  to  the  wretched  upstart. 
Indeed,  Frau  Dellwig's  position  was  similar  to  that 
painful  one  in  which  Susie  found  herself  when  her 
influential  London  acquaintance  left  her  out  of  the 
invitations  to  the  wedding  ;  on  which  occasion,  as  we 
know,  Susie  had  been  constrained  to  flee  to  Germany 
in  order  to  escape  the  comments  of  her  friends. 
Frau  Delhvig  could  not  flee  anywhere.  She  was 
obliged  to  stay  where  she  was  and  bear  it  as  best  she 
might,  humiliated  in  the  eyes  of  the  whole  neighbour- 
hood—an object  of  derision  to  her  very  milkmaids. 


124  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

Philosophers  smile  at  such  trials  ;  but  to  persons  who 
are  not  philosophers — and  at  Kleinwalde  these  were  in 
the  majority — they  are  more  difficult  to  endure  than 
any  family  bereavement.  There  is  no  dignity  about 
them,  and  friends,  instead  of  sympathising,  rejoice 
more  or  less  openly  according  to  the  degree  of  their 
civilisation.  The  degree  of  civilisation  among  Frau 
Dellwig's  friends  was  not  great,  and  the  rejoicings  on 
the  next  Sunday  when  they  all  met  would  be  but  ill- 
concealed  ;  there  was  no  escape  from  them,  they  had 
to  be  faced,  and  the  malicious  condolences  accepted 
with  what  countenance  she  could.  Instead  of  making 
sausages,  therefore,  she  shut  herself  in  her  bedroom 
and  wept. 

And  so  it  came  about  that  the  unconscious  Anna, 
whose  one  desire  was  to  live  at  peace  with  her  neigh- 
bours, made  two  enemies  within  two  days.  "  All 
women,"  said  Dellwig  to  his  wife,  "  high  and  low, 
are  alike.  Unless  they  have  a  husband  to  keep 
them  in  their  right  places,  they  become  religious  and 
run  after  pastors.  Manske  has  wormed  himself 
in  very  cleverly — truly  very  cleverly.  But  we  will 
worm  him  out  again  with  equal  cleverness.  As 
for  his  wife,  what  canst  thou  expect  from  so  great  a 
fool?" 

"  No,  indeed,  from  her  I  expect  nothing,"  replied 
his  wife,  tossing  her  head,  "but  from  the  niece  of 
our  late  master  I  expected  the  behaviour  of  a  lady." 
And  at  that  moment,  the  niece  of  her  late  master 
being  announced,  she  fled  into  her  bedroom. 

Anna,  friendly  as  ever,  specially  kind  to  Dellwig 
since  his  tears  on  the  night  of  her  arrival,  came  with 
Letty  into  the  gloomy  little  office  where  he  was 
working,  with  all  the  morning  sunshine  in  her  face. 
Though  she  was  perplexed  by  many  things  she  was 


IX  THE  BENEFACTRESS  125 

intensely  happy.  The  perfect  freedom,  after  her 
years  of  servitude,  was  Hke  heaven.  Here  she  was  in 
her  own  home,  from  which  nobody  could  take  her, 
free  to  arrange  her  life  as  she  chose.  Oh,  it  was  a 
beautiful  world,  and  this  the  most  beautiful  corner  of 
it  !  She  was  sure  the  sky  was  bluer  at  Kleinwalde 
than  in  other  places,  and  that  the  larks  sang  louder. 
And  then  was  she  not  on  the  very  verge  of  realising 
her  dreams  of  bringing  the  light  of  happiness  into 
dark  and  hopeless  lives  .''  Oh,  the  beautiful,  beautiful 
world  !  She  came  into  Dellwig's  room  with  the  love 
of  it  shining  in  her  eyes. 

He  was  as  obsequious  as  ever,  for  unfortunately 
his  bread  and  butter  depended  on  this  perverse 
young  woman  ;  but  he  was  also  graver  and  less 
talkative,  considering  within  himself  that  he  could 
not  be  expected  to  pass  over  such  a  slight  without 
some  alteration  in  his  manner.  He  ought,  he  felt, 
to  show  that  he  was  pained,  and  he  ought  to  show 
it  so  unmistakably  that  she  v/ould  perhaps  be  led  to 
offer  some  explanation  of  her  conduct.  Accordingly 
he  assumed  the  subdued  behaviour  of  one  whose 
feelings  have  been  hurt,  and  Anna  thought  how 
greatly  he  improved  on  acquaintance. 

He  would  have  given  much  to  know  why  she 
wanted  the  papers,  for  surely  it  was  unusual  for 
women  to  read  newspapers .''  When  there  was  a 
murder,  or  anything  of  that  sort,  his  wife  liked  to 
see  them,  but  not  at  other  times.  "  Is  the  gracious 
Miss  interested  in  politics  .''  "  he  inquired,  as  he  put 
several  together. 

"  No,  not  particularly,"  said  Anna  ;  "  at  least,  not 
vet  in  German  politics.  I  must  live  here  a  little 
while  first." 

"  In — in  literature,  perhaps  t  " 


126  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

"  No,  not  particularly.  I  know  so  little  about 
German  books." 

"  There  are  some  well-written  articles  occasionally 
on  the  modes  in  ladies'  dresses." 

"  Really  ? " 

''  My  wife  tells  me  she  often  gets  hints  from  them 
as  to  what  is  being  worn.  Ladies,  we  know,"  he 
added  with  a  superior  smile — checked,  however,  on 
his  remembering  that  he  was  pained — "  are  interested 
in  these  matters." 

"Yes,  they  are,"  agreed  Anna,  smiling,  and  hold- 
ing out  her  hand  for  the  papers. 

"  Ah,  then,  it  is  that  that  the  gracious  Miss  wishes 
to  read  .^ "  he  said  quickly. 

"  No,  not  particularly,"  said  Anna,  who  began  to 
see  that  he  too  suffered  from  the  prevailing  inquisi- 
tiveness.  Besides,  she  was  too  much  afraid  of  his 
having  sisters,  or  of  his  wife's  having  sisters,  eager  to 
come  and  be  a  blessing  to  her,  to  tell  him  about  her 
advertisement. 

On  the  steps  of  his  house,  to  which  Dellwig  accom- 
panied the  two  girls,  stood  a  man  who  had  just  got 
off  his  horse.  He  was  pulling  off  his  gloves  as  he 
watched  it  being  led  away  by  a  boy.  He  had  his 
back  to  Anna,  and  she  looked  at  it  interested,  for 
it  was  unlike  any  back  she  had  yet  seen  in  Klein- 
walde,  in  that  it  was  the  back  of  a  gentleman. 

"  It  is  Herr  von  Lohm,"  said  Dellwig,  "  who  has 
business  here  this  morning.  Some  of  our  people  un- 
fortunately drink  too  much  on  holidays  like  Good 
Friday,  and  there  are  quarrels.  I  explained  to  the 
gracious  one  that  he  is  our  Amtsvorsteher." 

Herr  von  Lohm  turned  at  the  sound  of  Dellwig's 
voice,  and  took  off  his  hat.  "  Pray  present  me 
to  these  ladies,"  he  said  to  Dellwig,  and  bowed  as 


IX  THE  BENEFACTRESS  127 

gravely  to  Letty  as  to  Anna,  to  her  great  satisfac- 
tion, 

"So  this  is  my  neighbour?  "  thought  Anna,  look- 
ing down  at  him  from  the  higher  step  on  which  she 
stood  with  her  papers  under  her  arm. 

"  So  this  is  old  Joachim's  niece,  of  whom  he  was 
always  talking  ?  "  thought  Lohm,  looking  up  at  her. 
"  Wise  old  man  to  leave  the  place  to  her  instead  of 
to  those  unpleasant  sons."  And  he  proceeded  to 
make  a  few  conventional  remarks,  hoping  that  she 
liked  her  new  home  and  would  soon  be  quite  used  to 
the  country  life.  "It  is  very  quiet  and  lonely  for  a 
lady  not  used  to  our  kind  of  country,  with  its  big 
estates  and  few  neighbours,"  he  said  in  English. 
"  May  I  talk  English  to  you  ?  It  gives  me  pleasure 
to  do  so." 

"  Please  do,"  said  Anna.  Here  was  a  person  who 
might  be  very  helpful  to  her  if  ever  she  reached  her 
wits'  end ;  and  how  nice  he  looked,  how  clean,  and 
what  a  pleasant  voice  he  had,  falling  so  gratefully  on 
ears  already  aching  with  Dellwig's  shouts  and  the 
parson's  emphatic  oratory. 

He  was  somewhere  between  thirty  and  forty,  not 
young  at  all,  she  thought,  having  herself  never  got 
out  of  the  habit  of  feeling  very  young  ;  and  beyond 
being  long  and  wiry,  with  not  even  a  tendency  to  fat, 
as  she  noticed  with  pleasure,  there  was  nothing 
striking  about  him.  His  top  boots  and  his  green 
Norfolk  jacket  and  green  felt  hat,  with  a  little  feather 
stuck  in  it,  gave  him  an  air  of  being  a  sportsman.  It 
was  refreshing  to  come  across  him,  if  only  because 
he  did  not  bow.  Also,  considering  him  from  the 
top  of  the  steps,  she  became  suddenly  conscious 
that  Dellwig  and  the  parson  neglected  their  persons 
more  than  was  seemly.     They  were  both  no  doubt 


128  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

very    excellent  ;     but    she    did     like    nicely    washed 
men. 

Herr  von  Lohm  began  to  talk  about  Uncle 
Joachim,  with  whom  he  had  been  very  intimate. 
Anna  came  down  the  steps,  and  he  went  a  few  yards 
with  her,  leaving  Dellwig  standing  at  the  door,  and 
followed  by  the  eyes  of  Dellwig's  wife,  concealed 
behind  her  bedroom  curtain. 

"  I  shall  be  with  you  in  one  moment,"  called 
Lohm  over  his  shoulder. 

"  G«/,"  said  Dellwig  ;  and  he  went  in  to  tell  his 
wife  that  these  English  ladies  were  very  free  with 
gentlemen,  and  to  bid  her  mark  his  words  that  Lohm 
and  Kleinwalde  would  before  long  be  one  estate. 

"And  us?  What  will  become  of  us.?"  she 
asked,  eyeing  him  anxiously. 

"I  too  would  like  to  know  that,"  replied  her 
husband.  "  This  all  comes  of  leaving  land  away  from 
the  natural  heirs."  And  with  great  energy  he  pro- 
ceeded to  curse  the  memory  of  his  late  master. 

Lohm's  English  was  so  good  that  it  astonished 
Anna.  It  was  stiff  and  slow,  but  he  made  no 
mistakes  at  all.  His  manner  was  grave,  and  looking 
at  him  more  attentively  she  saw  traces  on  his  face  of 
much  hard  work  and  anxiety.  He  told  her  that  his 
mother  had  been  a  cousin  of  Uncle  Joachim's  wife. 
"  So  that  there  is  a  slight  relationship  by  marriage 
existing  between  us,"  he  said. 

"  Very  slight,"  said  Anna,  smiling, — "  faint  almost 
beyond  recognition." 

"  Does  your  niece  stay  with  you  for  an  indefinite 
period.?"  he  asked.  "I  cannot  avoid  knowing  that 
this  young  lady  is  your  niece,"  he  added  with  a 
smile,  "  and  that  she  is  here  with  her  governess,  and 
that  Lady  Estcourt  left  suddenly  on  Good   Friday, 


IX  THE  BENEFACTRESS  129 

because  all  that  concerns  you  is  of  the  greatest  interest 
to  the  inhabitants  of  this  quiet  place,  and  they  talk 
of  little  else." 

"  How  long  will  it  take  them  to  get  used  to  me  ? 
I  don't  like  being  an  object  of  interest.  No,  Letty 
is  going  home  as  soon  as  I  have  found  a  companion. 
That  is  why  I  am  taking  the  inspector's  newspapers 
home  with  me.  I  can't  construct  an  advertisement 
out  of  my  stores  of  German,  and  am  going  to  see  if 
I  can  find  something  that  will  serve  as  model." 

"  Oh,  may  I  help  you  ?  What  difficulties  you 
must  meet  with  every  hour  of  the  day." 

"  I  do,"  agreed  Anna,  thinking  of  all  there  was 
to  be  done  before  she  could  open  her  doors  and  her 
arms  to  the  twelve. 

"  Any  service  that  I  can  render  to  my  oldest 
friend's  niece  will  give  me  the  greatest  pleasure. 
Will  you  allow  me  to  send  the  advertisement  for 
you  .''     You  can  hardly  know  how  or  where  to  send  it." 

"  I  don't,"  said  Anna.  "  It  would  be  very  kind — 
I  really  would  be  grateful.  It  is  so  important  that  I 
should  find  somebody  soon." 

"  It  is  of  the  first  importance,"  said  Lohm. 

"  Has  the  parson  told  him  of  my  plans  already  ?  " 
thought  Anna.  But  Lohm  had  not  seen  Manske 
that  morning,  and  was  only  picturing  this  little  thing 
to  himself,  this  dainty  little  lady,  used  to  such  a 
different  life,  alone  in  the  empty  house,  struggling 
with  her  small  supply  of  German  to  make  the  two 
raw  servants  understand  her  ways.  Anna  was  not  a 
little  thing  at  all,  and  she  would  have  been  half- 
amused  and  half- indignant  if  she  had  known  that 
that  was  the  impression  she  had  made  on  him, 

*' My  sister,  Griifin  Hasdorf,"  he  began  — 
"Heavens,"  she  thought,  "  has  /le  got  an  unattached 

K 


130  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

sister  ? " — "  sometimes  stays  with  me  with  her 
children,  and  when  she  is  here  will  be  able  to  help 
you  in  many  ways  if  you  will  allow  her  to.  She  too 
knew  your  uncle  from  her  childhood.  She  will  be 
greatly  interested  to  know  that  you  have  had  the 
courage  to  settle  here." 

"Courage.^"  echoed  Anna,  "Why,  1  love  it. 
It's  the  most  beautiful  place  in  the  world." 

Lohm  looked  doubtfully  at  her  for  a  moment ; 
but  there  was  no  mistaking  the  sincerity  of  those 
eyes.  "  It  is  pleasant  to  hear  you  say  so,"  he  said. 
"  My  sister  Trudi  would  scarcely  credit  her  ears  if 
she  were  present.  To  her  it  is  a  terrible  place,  and 
she  pities  me  with  all  her  heart  because  my  lot  is  cast 
m  it. 

Anna  laughed.  She  thought  she  knew  very  well 
what  sister  Trudis  were  like.  "  I  do  not  pity  you," 
she  said  ;  "  I  couldn't  pity  any  being  who  lived  in 
this  air,  and  under  this  sky.  Look  how  blue  it  is — 
and  the  geese — did  you  ever  see  such  white  geese  ? " 

A  flock  of  geese  were  being  driven  across  the 
sunny  yard,  dazzling  in  their  whiteness.  Anna  lifted 
up  her  face  to  the  sun  and  drew  in  a  long  breath  of 
the  sharp  air.  She  forgot  Lohm  for  a  moment — it 
was  such  a  glorious  Easter  Sunday,  and  the  world 
was  so  full  of  the  abundant  gifts  of  God. 

Dellwig,  who  had  been  watching  them  from  his 
wife's  window,  thought  that  the  brawlers  who  were 
going  to  be  fined  had  been  kept  waiting  long  enough, 
and  came  out  again  on  to  the  steps. 

Lohm  saw  him,  and  felt  that  he  must  go.  "  I 
must  do  my  business,"  he  said,  "  but  as  you  have 
given  me  permission  I  will  send  an  advertisement  to 
the  papers  to-night.  Of  course  you  desire  to  have 
an  elderly  lady  of  good  family  ^  " 


IX  THE  BENEFACTRESS  131 

"  Yes,  but  not  too  elderly — not  so  elderly  that 
she  won't  be  able  to  work.  There  will  be  so  much 
to  do — so  very  much  to  do." 

Lohm  went  away  wondering  what  work  there 
could  possibly  be,  except  the  agreeable  and  easy  work 
of  seeing  that  this  young  lady  was  properly  fed,  and 
properly  petted,  and  in  every  way  taken  care  of. 


CHAPTER    X 

He  sent  the  advertisement  by  the  evening  post  to  two 
or  three  of  the  best  newspapers.  He  had  seen  the 
pastor  after  morning  church,  who  had  at  once  poured 
into  his  ears  all  about  Anna's  twelve  ladies,  garnish- 
ing the  story  with  interjections  warmly  appreciative 
of  the  action  of  Providence  in  the  matter.  Lohm 
had  been  considerably  astonished,  but  had  said  little  ; 
it  was  not  his  way  to  say  much  at  any  time  to  the 
parson,  and  the  ecstasies  about  the  new  neighbour 
jarred  on  him.  Miss  Estcourt's  need  of  advice  must 
have  been  desperate  for  her  to  have  confided  in 
Manske.  He  appreciated  his  good  qualities,  but  his 
family  had  never  been  intimate  with  the  parson  ; 
perhaps  because  from  time  immemorial  the  Lohms 
had  been  chiefly  males,  and  the  attitude  of  male 
Germans  towards  parsons  is,  at  its  best,  one  of 
indulgence.  This  Lohm  restricted  his  dealings  with 
him,  as  his  father  had  done  before  him,  to  the 
necessary  deliberations  on  the  treatment  of  the  sick 
and  poor,  and  to  official  meetings  in  the  schoolhouse. 
He  was  invariably  kind  to  him,  and  lent  as  willing  an 
ear  as  his  slender  purse  allowed  to  applications  for 
assistance  ;  but  the  idea  of  discussing  spiritual 
experiences  with  him,  or,  in  times  of  personal 
sorrow,  of   dwelling   conversationally  on    his    griefs, 


CHAP.  X         THE  BENEFACTRESS  133 

would  never  have  occurred  to  him.  The  easy 
famiharity  with  which  Manske  spoke  of  the  Deity 
offended  his  taste.  These  things,  these  sacred  and 
awful  mysteries,  were  the  secrets  between  the 
soul  and  its  God.  No  man,  thought  Lohm,  should 
dare  to  touch  with  profane  questioning  the  veil 
shrouding  his  neighbour's  inner  life.  Manske,  how- 
ever, knew  no  fear  and  no  compunction.  He  would 
ask  the  most  tremendous  questions  between  two 
mouthfuls  of  pudding,  backing  himself  up  with  the 
whole  authority  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  besides  the 
Scriptures  ;  and  if  the  poor  people  and  the  partly 
educated  liked  it,  and  were  edified,  and  enjoyed 
stirring  up  and  talking  over  their  religious  emotions 
almost  as  much  as  they  did  the  latest  village  scandal, 
Lohm,  who  had  no  taste  either  for  scandal  or 
emotions,  kept  the  parson  at  arm's  length. 

He  thought  a  good  deal  about  what  Manske  had 
told  him  during  the  afternoon.  She  had  gone  to  the 
parson,  then,  for  help,  because  there  was  no  one  else 
to  go  to.  Poor  little  thing.  He  could  imagine  the 
sort  of  speeches  Manske  had  made  her,  and  the  sort 
of  advertisement  he  would  have  told  her  to  write. 
Poor  little  thing.  Well,  what  he  could  do  was  to 
put  her  in  the  way  of  getting  a  companion  as  quickly 
as  possible,  and  a  very  sensible,  capable  woman  it 
ought  to  be.  No  wonder  she  was  not  to  be  past  hard 
work.  Work  there  would  certainly  be,  with  twelve 
women  in  the  house  undergoing  the  process  of  being 
made  happy.  Lohm  could  not  help  smiling  at  the 
plan.  He  thought  of  Miss  Estcourt  courageously 
trying  to  demolish  the  crust  of  dejection  that  had 
formicd  in  the  course  of  years  over  the  hearts  of  her 
patients,  and  he  trusted  that  she  would  not  exhaust 
her  own  youth  and  joyousness  in  the  effort.     Perhaps 


134  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

she  would  succeed.  He  did  not  remember  having 
heard  of  any  scheme  quite  analogous,  and  possibly 
she  would  override  all  obstacles  in  triumph,  and  the 
patients  who  entered  her  home  with  the  burden  of 
their  past  misery  heavy  upon  them,  would  develop 
in  the  sunshine  of  her  presence  into  twelve  riotously 
jovial  ladies.  But  would  not  she  herself  suffer? 
Would  not  her  own  strength  and  hopefulness  be 
sapped  up  by  those  she  benefited  ^  He  could  not 
think  that  it  would  be  to  the  advantage  of  the  world 
at  large  to  substitute  twelve,  nay  fift'%  nay  any 
number  of  jolly  old  ladies,  for  one  girl  with  such 
sweet  and  joyous  eyes. 

This,  of  course,  was  the  purely  masculine  point  of 
view.  The  women  to  be  benefited — why  he  thought 
of  them  as  old  is  not  clear,  for  you  need  not  be  old 
to  be  unhappy — would  have  protested,  probably,  with 
indignant  cries  that  individually  they  were  well  worth 
Miss  Estcourt,  in  any  case  were  every  bit  as  good  as 
she  was,  and  collectively — oh,  absurd. 

He  thought  of  his  sister  Trudi.  Perhaps  she 
knew  of  some  one  who  would  be  both  kind  and 
clever,  and  protect  Miss  Estcourt  in  some  measure 
from  the  twelve.  Trudi' s  friends,  it  is  true,  were 
not  the  sort  among  whom  staid  companions  are 
found.  Their  husbands  were  chiefly  lieutenants,  and 
they  spent  their  time  at  races.  They  lived  in  flats  in 
Hanover,  where  the  regiment  was  quartered,  and 
flats  are  easy  to  manage,  and  none  of  these  young 
women  would  endure,  he  supposed,  to  have  an 
elderly  companion  always  hanging  round.  Still, 
there  was  a  remote  possibility  that  some  one  of  them 
might  be  able  to  recommend  a  suitable  person.  If 
Trudi  were  staying  with  him  now  she  would  be  a 
great  help  ;  not  so  much  because  of  what  she  would 


X  THE  BENEFACTRESS  135 

do,  but  because  he  could  go  with  her  to  Kleinwalde, 
and  Miss  Estcourt  could  come  to  his  house  when 
she  wanted  anything,  and  need  not  depend  solely  on 
the  parson.  It  was  his  duty,  considering  old 
Joachim's  unchanging  kindness  towards  him,  and  the 
pains  the  old  man  had  taken  to  help  him  in  the 
management  of  his  estate,  and  to  encourage  him  at  a 
time  when  he  greatly  needed  help  and  encourage- 
ment, to  do  all  that  lay  in  his  power  for  old 
Joachim's  niece.  When  he  heard  that  she  was 
coming  he  had  decided  that  this  was  his  plain  duty  : 
that  she  was  so  pretty,  so  adorably  pretty  and  simple 
and  friendly,  only  made  it  an  unusually  pleasant  one. 
"  I  will  write  to  Trudi,"  he  thought,  "  and  ask  her 
to  come  over  for  a  week  or  two." 

He  sat  down  at  his  writing-table  in  the  big 
window  overlooking  the  farmyard,  and  began  the 
letter.  But  he  felt  that  it  would  be  absurd  to  ask 
her  to  come  on  Miss  Estcourt's  account.  Why 
should  she  do  anything  for  Miss  Estcourt,  and  why 
should  he  want  his  sister  to  do  anything  for  her .? 
That  would  be  the  first  thing  that  would  strike  the 
astute  Trudi.  So  he  merely  wrote  reminding  her 
that  she  had  not  stayed  with  him  since  the  previous 
summer,  and  suggested  that  she  should  come  for  a  few 
days  with  her  children,  now  that  the  spring  was 
coming  and  the  snow  had  gone.  "  The  woods  will 
soon  be  blue  with  anemones,"  he  wrote,  though  he 
well  knew  that  Trudi's  attitude  towards  anemones 
was  cold.  Perhaps  her  little  boys  would  like  to  pick 
them  ;  anyhow  some  sort  of  an  inducement  had  to  be 
held  out. 

Outside  his  window  was  a  duck-pond,  thin  sheets 
of  ice  still  floating  in  broken  pieces  on  its  surface  ; 
behind  the  duck-pond  was  the  dairy  ;  and  on  either 


136  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

side  of  the  yard  were  cow-sheds  and  pig-styes.  The 
farm  carts  stood  in  a  peaceful  Sunday  row  down  one 
side,  and  at  the  other  end  of  the  yard,  shutting  out 
the  same  view  of  the  sea  and  island  that  Anna  saw 
from  her  bedroom  window,  was  a  mountainous  range 
of  manure.  When  Trudi  came,  she  never  entered 
the  rooms  on  this  side  of  the  house,  because,  as  she 
explained,  it  was  one  of  her  peculiarities  not  to  like 
manure  ;  and  she  slept  and  ate  and  aired  her  opinions 
on  the  west  side,  where  the  garden  lay  between  the 
house  and  the  road.  She  never  would  have  come  to 
Lohm  at  all,  not  being  burdened  with  any  undue 
sentiment  in  regard  to  ties  of  blood,  if  it  had  not 
been  necessary  to  go  somewhere  in  the  summer,  and 
if  the  other  places  had  not  been  beyond  the  resources 
of  the  family  purse,  always  at  its  emptiest  when  the 
racing  season  was  over  and  the  card -playing  at  an 
end.  As  it  was,  this  was  a  cheap  and  convenient 
haven,  and  her  brother  Axel  was  kind  to  the  little 
boys,  and  not  too  angry  when  they  plundered  his 
apple-trees,  damaged  the  knees  of  his  ponies,  and  did 
their  best  to  twist  off"  the  tails  of  his  disconcerted 
sucking-pigs. 

He  was  the  eldest  of  three  brothers,  and  she 
came  last.  She  was  twenty -six,  and  he  was  ten 
years  older.  When  the  father  died,  the  land 
ought  properly  to  have  been  divided  between  the 
four  children,  but  such  a  proceeding  would  have 
been  extremely  inconvenient,  and  the  two  younger 
brothers,  and  the  sister  just  married,  agreed  to  accept 
their  share  in  money,  and  to  leave  the  estate  entirely 
to  Axel.  It  was  the  best  course  to  take,  but  it 
threw  Axel  into  difficulties  that  continued  for  years. 
His  father,  with  four  times  the  money,  had  lived 
very   comfortably  at  Lohm,   and    the   children    had 


X  THE  BENEFACTRESS  137 

been  brought  up  in  prosperity.  For  eight  years  his 
eldest  son  had  farmed  the  estate  with  a  quarter  the 
means,  and  had  found  it  so  far  from  simple  that  his 
hair  had  turned  grey  in  the  process.  It  needed  con- 
siderable skill  and  vigilance  to  enable  a  man  to 
extract  a  decent  living  from  the  soil  of  Lohm.  Part 
of  it  was  too  boggy,  and  part  of  it  too  sandy,  and 
the  trees  had  all  been  cut  down  thirty  years  before 
by  a  bland  grandfather,  serenely  indifferent  to  the 
opinion  of  posterity.  Axel's  first  work  had  been  to 
make  plantations  of  young  firs  and  pines  wherever 
the  soil  was  poorest,  and  when  he  rode  through 
the  beautiful  Kleinwalde  forest  he  endeavoured  to 
extract  what  pleasure  he  could  from  the  thought 
that  in  a  hundred  years  Lohm  too  would  have  a 
forest.  But  the  pleasure  to  be  extracted  from  this 
thought  was  of  a  surprisingly  subdued  quality.  All 
his  pleasures  were  of  a  subdued  quality.  His  days 
were  made  up  of  hard  work,  of  that  effort  to  induce 
both  ends  to  meet  which  knocks  the  savour  out  of 
life  with  such  a  singular  completeness.  He  was 
born  with  an  uncomfortably  exact  conception  of 
duty  ;  and  now  at  the  end  of  the  best  half  of  his 
life,  after  years  of  struggling  on  that  poor  soil  against 
the  odds  of  that  stern  climate,  this  conception  had 
shaped  itself  into  a  fixed  belief  that  the  one  thing 
entirely  beautiful,  the  one  thing  wholly  worthy  of 
a  man's  ambition,  is  the  right  doing  of  his  duty. 
So,  he  thought,  shall  a  man  have  peace  at  the  last. 

It  is  a  way  of  thinking  common  to  the  educated 
dwellers  in  solitary  places,  who  have  not  been  very 
successful.  Trudi  scorned  it.  "  Peace,"  she  said, 
"  at  the  last,  is  no  good  at  all.  What  one  wants  is 
peace  at  the  beginning  and  in  the  middle.  But  you 
only  think  stuff  like   that   because  you   haven't  got 


138  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

enough  money.  Poor  people  always  talk  about  the 
beauty  of  duty  and  peace  at  the  last.  If  somebody 
left  you  a  fortune  you'd  never  mention  either  of 
them  again.  Or  if  you  married  a  girl  with  money, 
now.  I  wish,  I  do  wish,  that  that  duty  would  strike 
you  as  the  one  thing  wholly  worth  doing." 

But  a  man  who  is  all  day  and  every  day  in  his 
fields,  who  farms  not  for  pleasure  but  for  his  bare 
existence,  has  no  time  to  set  out  in  search  of  girls 
with  money,  and  none  came  up  his  way.  Besides, 
he  had  been  engaged  a  few  years  before,  and  the 
girl  had  died,  and  he  had  not  since  had  the  least 
inclination  towards  matrimony.  After  that  he  had 
worked  harder  than  ever  ;  and  the  years  flew  by, 
filled  with  monotonous  labour.  Sometimes  they 
were  good  years,  and  the  ends  not  only  met  but 
lapped  over  a  little  ;  but  generally  the  bare  meeting 
of  the  ends  was  all  that  he  achieved.  His  wish  was 
that  his  brother  Gustav  who  came  after  him  should 
find  the  place  in  good  order  ;  if  possible  in  better 
order  than  before.  But  the  working  up  of  an 
estate  for  a  brother  Gustav,  with  whatever  deter- 
mination it  may  be  carried  on,  is  not  a  labour  that 
evokes  an  unflagging  enthusiasm  in  the  labourer  ; 
and  Axel,  however  beautiful  a  life  of  duty  might  be 
to  him  in  theory,  found  it,  in  practice,  of  an  altogether 
remarkable  greyness.  Two-thirds  of  his  house  were 
shut  up.  In  the  evenings  his  servants  stole  out  to 
court  and  be  courted,  and  left  the  place  to  himself 
and  echoes  and  memories.  It  was  a  house  built  for 
a  large  family,  for  troops  of  children,  and  frequent 
friends.  Axel  sat  in  it  alone  when  the  dusk  drove  him 
indoors,  defending  himself  against  his  remembrances 
by  prolonged  interviews  with  his  head  inspector,  or  a 
zealous  study  of  the  latest  work  on  potato  diseases. 


X  THE  BENEFACTRESS  139 

"  I  see  that  Bibi  Bornstedt  is  staying  with  your 
Regierungsprasident,"  Trudi  had  written  a  httle  while 
before.  "  Now,  then,  is  your  chance.  She  is  a  true 
gold-fish.  You  cannot  continue  to  howl  over  Hilde- 
gard's  memory  for  ever.  Bibi  will  have  two  hundred 
thousand  marks  a  year  when  the  old  ones  die,  and  is 
quite  a  decent  girl.  Her  nose  is  a  fiasco,  but  when  you 
have  been  married  a  week  you  will  not  so  much  as 
see  that  she  has  a  nose.  And  the  two  hundred 
thousand  marks  will  still  be  there.  Ach^  Axel,  what 
comfort,  what  consolation,  in  two  hundred  thousand 
marks !  You  could  put  the  most  glorious  wreaths 
on  Hildegard's  tomb,  besides  keeping  racehorses." 

Lohm  suddenly  remembered  this  letter  as  he  sat, 
having  finished  his  own,  looking  out  of  the  window 
at  two  girls  in  Sunday  splendour  kissing  one  of  the 
stable  boys  behind  a  farm  cart.  They  were  all  three 
apparently  enjoying  themselves  very  much,  the  girls 
laughing,  the  boy  with  an  expression  at  once  imbecile 
and  beatific.  They  thought  the  master's  eye  could 
not  see  them  there,  but  the  master's  eye  saw  most 
things-  He  took  up  his  pen  again  and  added  a 
postscript.  "  If  you  come  soon  you  will  be  able  to 
enjoy  the  society  of  your  friend  Bibi.  She  came 
on  Wednesday,  I  believe."  Then,  feeling  sHghtly 
ashamed  of  using  the  innocent  Miss  Bibi  as  a  bait 
to  catch  his  sister,  he  wrote  the  advertisement  for 
Anna,  and  put  both  letters  in  the  post-bag. 

The  effect  of  his  postscript  was  precisely  the  one 
he  had  expected.  Trudi  was  drinking  her  morning 
coffee  in  her  bedroom  at  twelve  o'clock,  when  the 
letter  came.  Her  hair  was  being  done  by  a  Friseur^ 
an  artist  in  hairdressing,  who  rode  about  Hanover 
every  day  on  a  bicycle,  his  pockets  bulging  out  with 
curling -tongs,   and   for    three   marks   decorated   the 


I40  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chaf. 

heads  of  Trudi  and  her  friends  with  innumerable 
wave  Trudi  was  devoted  to  him,  with  the  devo- 
tion naturally  felt  for  the  person  on  whom  one's 
beauty  depends,  for  he  was  a  true  artist,  and  really 
did  work  amazing  transformations.  "  What !  You 
have  never  had  Herr  Jungbluth?  "  Trudi  cried,  on 
the  last  occasion  on  which  she  met  Bibi,  the  daughter 
of  a  Hanover  banker,  and  quite  outside  her  set  but 
for  the  riches  that  ensured  her  an  enthusiastic 
welcome  wherever  she  went,  '*  aber  Bibi !  "  There 
was  so  much  genuine  surprise  and  compassion  in  this 
aber  Bibi  that  the  young  person  addressed  felt  as 
though  she  had  been  for  years  missing  a  possibility 
of  happiness.  Trudi  added,  as  a  special  recommenda- 
tion, that  Jungbluth  smelt  of  soap.  He  had  care- 
fully studied  the  nature  of  women,  and  if  he  had  to 
do  with  a  pretty  one  would  find  an  early  opportunity 
of  going  into  respectful  raptures  over  what  he 
described  as  her  klassisches  Profil ;  and  if  it  was  a 
woman  whose  face  was  not  all  she  could  have 
wished,  he  would  tell  her,  in  a  tone  of  subdued 
enthusiasm,  that  her  profile,  as  to  which  she  had  long 
been  in  doubt,  was  hochst  interessant.  The  popularity 
of  this  young  man  in  Trudi's  set  was  enormous  ;  and 
as  all  the  less  aristocratic  Hanoverian  ladies  hastened 
to  imitate,  Jungbluth  lived  in  great  contentment  and 
prosperity  with  a  young  wife  whose  hair  was  repose- 
fully  straight,  and  a  baby  whose  godmother  was 
Trudi. 

"  Blue  woods  !  Anemones  !  "  read  Trudi  with 
immense  contempt.  "  Is  the  boy  in  his  senses } 
The  idea  of  expecting  me  to  go  to  that  dreary  place 
now.  Ah,  now  I  understand,"  she  added,  turning  the 
page,  "  it  Is  Bibi — he  is  really  after  her,  and  of  course 
can  get  along  quicker  if  I  am  there  to  help.     Excel- 


X  THE  BENEFACTRESS  141 

lent  Axel!  And  why  did  he  go  to  the  pains  of 
trotting  out  the  anemones  ?  What  is  the  use  of  not 
being  frank  with  me  ?  I  can  see  through  him,  what- 
ever he  does.  He  is  so  good-natured  that  I  am  sure 
he  will  lend  us  heaps  of  Bibi's  money  once  he  has  got 
it.  So,  lieber  Jungbluth^^  she  said  aloud,  *'  that  will 
do  to-day.  Beautiful — beautiful — better  than  ever. 
I  am  in  a  hurry.  I  travel  to  Berlin  this  very  after- 
noon." 

And  the  next  day  she  arrived  at  Stralsund,  and 
was  met  by  her  brother  at  the  station. 

She  greeted  him  with  enthusiasm.  *' As  we  are 
here,"  she  said,  when  they  were  driving  through  the 
town,  "  let  us  pay  our  respects  to  the  Regierungs- 
prasidentin.  It  will  save  our  coming  in  again  to- 
morrow." 

"No,  I  cannot  to-day.  I  must  get  back  as 
quickly  as  possibly.  The  hands  had  their  Easter 
ball  yesterday,  and  when  I  left  Lohm  this  morning 
half  of  them  were  still  in  bed." 

"  Well,  then,  the  horses  will  have  to  do  the  journey 
aarain  to-morrow,  for  no  time  should  be  lost." 

"  Yes,  you  can  come  in  to-morrow,  ir  you  long  so 
much  to  see  your  friend." 

"  And  you  .''  "  asked  Trudi,  in  a  tone  of  astonish- 
ment. 

"  And  I  .^  I  am  up  to  my  ears  now  in  work. 
Last  week  was  the  first  week  for  four  months  that  we 
could  plough.  Now  we  have  lost  these  three  days  at 
Easter.      I  cannot  spare  a  single  hour." 

"  But,  my  dear  Axel,  Bibi  is  of  far  greater  im- 
portance for  the  future  of  Lohm  than  any  amount  of 
ploughing." 

"  I  confess  I  do  not  see  how." 

"  I  don't  understand  you." 


142  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

"  Why  didn't  you  bring  the  little  boys  ? " 

"  What  have  you  asked  me  to  come  here  for  ? " 

"  Come,  Trudi,  you've  not  been  near  me  for  eight 
months.  Isn't  it  natural  that  you  should  pay  me  a 
little  visit  ? " 

"  No,  it  isn't  natural  at  all  to  come  to  such  a  place 
in  winter,  and  leave  all  the  fun  at  home.  I  came 
because  of  Bibi." 

"  What  !  You'll  come  for  Bibi,  but  not  for  your 
own  brother.?  " 

"  Now,  Axel,  you  know  very  well  that  I  have  come 
for  you  both." 

"  For  us  both  ?  What  would  Miss  Bibi  say  if 
she  heard  you  talking  of  herself  and  of  me  as  '  you 
both'.?" 

"  I  wish  you  would  not  bother  to  go  on  like  this. 
It's  a  great  waste  of  time." 

"  So  it  is,  my  dear.  Any  talk  about  Bibi  Born- 
stedt,  as  far  as  I  am  concerned,  is  a  hopeless  waste  of 
time." 

"  Axel !  " 

"  Trudi !  " 

"  You  don't  mean  to  say  that  you  are  not  thinking 
of  her  ? " 

"  Thinking  of  her  .?  I  never  let  m.y  thoughts  linger 
round  strange  young  ladies." 

"  Then  what  in  heaven's  name  have  you  got  me 
here  for .?  " 

"  The  anemones  are  coming  out " 

*'  Jch " 

*'They  really  are." 

"  Suppose  instead  of  teasing  me  as  though  I  were 
still  ten  and  you  a  great  bully,  you  talked  sensibly. 
The  Hohensteins  give  a  ^a/  masque  to-night,  and  I 
gave  it  up  to  come  to  you." 


X  THE  BENEFACTRESS  143 

"  Oh,  my  dear,  that  was  really  kuid,"  said  Lohm, 
touched  by  the  tremendousness  of  this  sacrifice. 

"  Then  be  a  good  boy,"  said  Trudi  caressingly, 
edging  herself  closer  to  him,  "  and  tell  me  you  are 
going  to  be  wise  about  Bibi.  Don't  throw  such  a 
chance  away — it's  positively  wicked." 

"  My  dear  Trudi,  you'll  have  us  in  the  ditch.  It 
is  very  nice  when  you  lean  against  me,  but  I  can't 
drive.  By  the  way,  you  remember  my  old  Klein- 
walde  neighbour  ?  The  old  man  who  spoilt  you  so 
atrociously  ^  " 

"Bibi  will  make  a  most  excellent  wife,"  said 
Trudi,  ungratefully  indifferent  to  the  memory  of 
old  Joachim.  "  Oh,  what  a  cold  wind  there  is 
to-day.  Do  drive  faster,  Axel.  What  a  taste,  to 
live  here  and  to  like  it  into  the  bargain  !  " 

"You  know  that  I  must  live  here." 

"  But  you  needn't  like  it." 

"  You've  heard  that  old  Joachim  left  Kleinwalde 
to  his  English  niece  ?  " 

"  You  have  only  seen  Bibi  once,  and  she  grows  on 
one  tremendously." 

"  I  want  to  talk  about  old  Joachim." 

"And  I  want  to  talk  about  Bibi." 

"  Well,  Bibi  can  wait.  She  is  the  younger.  You 
know  about  the  old  man's  will.^" 

"  I  should  think  I  did.  One  of  his  unfortunate 
sons  has  just  joined  our  regiment.  You  should  hear 
him  on  the  subject." 

"  A  most  disagreeable,  grasping  lot,"  said  Lohm 
decidedly.  "  They  received  every  bit  of  their  dues, 
and  are  all  well  off.  Surely  the  old  man  could  do  as 
he  liked  with  the  one  place  that  was  not  entailed?  " 

"  It  isn't  the  usual  things  to  leave  one's  land  to  a 
foreigner.     Is  she  coming  to  live  in  it  .^  " 


144  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

"She  came  last  week." 

"  Oh  ?  "     This  in  a  tone  of  sudden  interest. 

There  was  a  pause.  Then  Trudi  said,  "  Is  she 
young  ? " 

"  Quite  young." 

*'  Pretty  .? " 

"Exceedingly  pretty." 

Trudi  looked  up  at  him  and  smiled. 

"  Well  .'*  "  said  Axel,  smiling  back  at  her. 

"  Well  ? "  said  Trudi,  continuing  to  smile. 

Axel  laughed  outright.  "My  dear  Trudi,  your 
astuteness  terrifies  me.  You  not  only  know  already 
why  I  wrote  to  you,  but  you  know  more  reasons  for 
the  letter  than  I  myself  dream  of.  I  want  to  be  able 
to  help  this  extremely  helpless  young  lady,  and  I  can 
hardly  be  of  any  use  to  her  because  I  have  no  woman 
in  the  house.  If  I  had  a  wife  I  could  be  of  the 
greatest  assistance." 

"  Only  then  you  wouldn't  want  to  be." 

"  Certainly  I  should."  * 

"  Pray,  why  ?  " 

"Because  I  have  a  greater  debt  of  obligations  to 
her  uncle  than  I  can  ever  repay  to  his  niece." 

"  Oh,  nonsense — nobody  pays  their  debts  of  obli- 
gations. The  natural  thing  to  do  is  to  hate  the  person 
who  has  forced  you  to  be  grateful,  and  to  get  out  of 
his  way." 

"  My  dear  Trudi,  this  shrewdness "  murmured 

her  brother.  Then  he  added,  "I  know  perfectly  well 
that  your  thoughts  have  already  flown  to  a  wedding. 
Mine  don't  reach  farther  than  an  elderly  companion." 

"  Who  for  ?     For  you  ^  " 

"  Miss  Estcourt  is  looking  for  an  elderly  com- 
panion, and  I  would  be  grateful  to  you  if  you  would 
help  her." 


X  THE  BENEFACTRESS  145 

"But  the  elderly  companion  does  not  exclude 
the  wedding." 

"  When  you  see  Miss  Estcourt  you  will  under- 
stand how  completely  such  a  possibility  is  outside  her 
calculations.  You  won't  of  course  believe  that  it  is 
outside  mine.  Why  should  you  want  to  marry  me 
to  every  girl  within  reach  ?  Five  minutes  ago  it  was 
Bibi,  and  now  it  is  Miss  Estcourt.  You  do  not  in 
the  least  consider  what  views  the  girls  themselves 
might  have.  Miss  Estcourt  is  absorbed  at  this 
moment  in  a  search  for  twelve  old  ladies." 

"  Twelve ?  " 

"  Her  ambition  is  to  spend  herself  and  her  money 
on  twelve  old  ladies.  She  thinks  happiness  and  money 
are  as  good  for  them  as  for  herself,  and  wants  to  share 
her  own  with  persons  who  have  neither." 

"  My  dear  Axel — is  she  mad  ?  " 

"  She  did  not  give  me  that  impression." 

"  And  you  say  she  is  young  ?  " 

"  Yes." 

"  And  really  pretty  .''  " 

"Yes." 

"  And  could  be  so  well  off  in  that  flourishing 
place  !  " 

"  Of  course  she  could." 

"  I'll  go  and  call  on  her  to-morrow,"  said  Trudi 
decidedly. 

"  It  will  be  kind  of  you,"  said  Lohm. 

"  Kind  !  It  isn't  kindness,  it's  curiosity,"  said 
Trudi  with  a  laugh.  "  Let  us  be  frank,  and  call 
things  by  their  right  names." 

Anna  was  in  the  garden,  admiring  the  first  crocus, 
when  Trudi  appeared.  She  drove  Axel's  cobs  up  to  the 
door  in  what  she  felt  was  excellent  style,  and  hoped 
Miss  Estcourt  was  watching  her  from  a  window  and 

L 


146  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

would  see  that  Englishwomen  were  not  the  only 
sportswomen  in  the  world.  But  Anna  saw  nothing 
but  the  crocus. 

The  wilderness  down  to  the  marsh  that  did  duty 
as  a  garden  was  so  sheltered  and  sunny  that  spring 
stopped  there  first  each  year  before  going  on  into  the 
forest  ;  and  Anna  loved  to  walk  straight  out  of  the 
drawing-room  window  into  it,  bareheaded  and  coat- 
less,  whenever  she  had  time.  Trudi  saw  her  coming 
towards  the  house  upon  the  servant's  telling  her  that 
a  lady  had  called.  "  Nothing  on,  on  a  cold  day  like 
this  !  "  she  thought.  She  herself  wore  a  particularly 
sporting  driving-coat,  with  an  immense  collar  turned 
up  over  her  ears.  "I  wonder,"  mused  Trudi,  watch- 
ing the  approaching  figure,  "  how  it  is  that  English 
girls,  so  tidy  in  the  clothes,  so  trim  in  the  shoes,  so 
neat  in  the  tie  and  collar,  never  apparently  brush  their 
hair.  A  German  Miss  Estcourt  vegetating  in  this 
quiet  place  would  probably  wear  grotesque  and  dis- 
connected garments,  doubtful  boots  and  striking  stock- 
ings, her  figure  would  rapidly  give  way  before  the 
insidiousness  of  Schweinebraten^  but  her  hair  would 
always  be  beautifully  done,  each  plait  smooth  and  in 
its  proper  place,  each  little  curl  exactly  where  it  ought 
to  be,  the  parting  a  model  of  straightness,  and  the 
whole  well  deserving  to  be  dignified  by  the  name  of 
Frisur.  English  girls  have  hair,  but  they  do  not 
not  have  Frisurs.'' 

Anna  came  in  through  the  open  window,  and 
Trudi's  face  expanded  into  the  most  genial  smiles. 
"  How  glad  I  am  to  make  your  acquaintance  !  "  she 
cried,  enthusiastically.  She  spoke  English  quite  as 
correctly  as  her  brother,  and  much  more  glibly.  "  I 
hope  you  will  let  me  help  you  if  I  can  be  of  any  use. 
My  brother    says   your  uncle  was  so  good   to  him. 


X  THE  BENEFACTRESS  147 

When  I  lived  here  he  was  very  kind  to  me  too. 
How  brave  of  you  to  stay  here !  And  what  wonder- 
ful plans  you  have  made  !  My  brother  has  told  me 
about  your  twelve  ladies.  What  courage  to  under- 
take to  make  twelve  women  happy.  I  find  it  hard 
enough  work  making  one  person  happy." 

"  One  person  ?     Oh,  Graf  Hasdorf." 

"  Oh  no,  myself.  You  see,  if  each  person  de- 
voted his  energies  to  making  himself  happy,  every- 
body would  be  happy." 

"No,  they  wouldn't,"  said  Anna,  "because  they 
do,  but  they're  not." 

They  looked  at  each  other  and  laughed.  "  She 
only  needs  Jungbluth  to  be  perfect,"  thought  Trudi ; 
and  with  her  usual  impulsiveness  began  immediately 
to  love  her. 

Anna  was  delighted  to  meet  some  one  of  her  own 
class  and  age  after  the  severe  though  short  course  she 
had  had  of  Dellwigs  and  Manskes  ;  and  Trudi  was  so 
much  interested  in  her  plans,  and  so  pressing  in  her 
offers  of  help,  that  she  very  soon  found  herself 
telling  her  all  her  difficulties  about  servants,  sheets, 
wall-papers,  and  whitewash.  "  Look  at  this  paper," 
she  said,  "  could  you  live  in  the  same  room  with  it  .'' 
No  one  will  ever  be  able  to  feel  cheerful  as  long  as 
it  is  here.  And  the  one  in  the  dining-room  is 
worse." 

"  It  isn't  beautiful,"  said  Trudi,  examining  it, 
"  but  it  is  what  we  call  prakiischy 

"  Then  I  don't  like  what  you  call  praktisch." 

"  Neither  do  I.  All  the  hideous  things  are 
praktisch — oil-cloth,  black  wall-papers,  handkerchiefs 
a  yard  square,  thick  boots,  ugly  women — if  ever  you 
hear  a  woman  praised  as  a  praktische  Fran  be  sure 
she's  frightful  in  every  way — ugly   and   dull.     The 


148  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

uglier  she  is  the  praktischer  she  is.  Oh,"  said  Trudi, 
casting  up  her  eyes,  "  how  terrible,  how  tragic,  to 
be  an  ugly  woman  !  "  Then,  bringing  her  gaze 
down  again  to  Anna's  face,  she  added,  "  My  flat  in 
Hanover  is  all  pinks  and  blues — the  most  becoming 
rooms  you  can  imagine.      I  look  so  nice  in  them." 

"  Pinks  and  blues  .''  That  is  just  what  I  want 
here.      Can't  I  get  any  in  Stralsund  .^  " 

Trudi  was  doubtful.  She  could  not  think  it 
possible  that  anybody  should  ever  get  anything  in 
Stralsund. 

"  But  I  must  do  my  shopping  there.  I  am  in 
such  a  hurry.  It  would  be  dreadful  to  have  to  keep 
any  one  waiting  only  because  my  house  isn't  ready." 

"  Well,  we  can  try,"  said  Trudi.  "  You  will  let 
me  go  with  you,  won't  you  } " 

"  I  shall  be  more  than  grateful  if  you  will  come." 

"  What  do  you  think  if  we  went  now  V  suggested 
Trudi,  always  for  prompt  action,  and  quickly  tired 
of  sitting  still.  "  My  brother  said  I  might  drive 
into  Stralsund  to-day  if  I  liked,  and  I  have  the  cobs 
here  now.  Don't  you  think  it  would  be  a  good 
thing,  as  you  are  in  such  a  hurry  .^  " 

"  Oh,  a  very  good  thing,"  exclaimed  Anna. 
"  How  kind  you  are.  You  are  sure  it  won't  bore 
you  frightfully  } " 

"  Oh,  not  a  bit.  It  will  be  rather  amusing  to  go 
into  those  shops  for  once,  and  I  shall  like  to  feel 
that  I  have  helped  the  good  work  on  a  little." 

Anna  thought  Trudi  delightful.  Trudi's  new 
friends  always  did  think  her  delightful  ;  and  she 
never  had  any  old  ones. 

She  drove  recklessly,  and  they  lurched  and  heaved 
through  the  sand  between  Kleinwalde  and  Lohm  at 
an    alarming    rate.       They    passed    Letty  and    Miss 


X  THE  BENEFACTRESS  149 

Leech,  going  for  their  afternoon  walk,  who  stood  on 
one  side  and  stared. 

"  Who's  that  ?  "  asked  Trudi. 

"  My  brother's  little  girl  and  her  governess." 

"  Oh  yes,  I  heard  about  them.  They  are  to 
stay  and  take  care  of  you  till  you  have  a  companion. 
Your  sister-in-law  didn't  like  Kleinwalde  ? " 

"No." 

Trudi  laughed. 

They  passed  Dellwig,  riding,  who  swept  off  his 
hat  with  his  customary  deference,  and  stared. 

"  Do  you  like  him  .''  "  asked  Trudi. 

"Who.?" 

"  Dellwig.  1  know  him  from  the  days  before  I 
married." 

"  I  don't  know  him  very  well  yet,"  said  Anna, 
"but  he  seems  to  be  very — very  polite." 

Trudi  laughed  again,  and  cracked  her  whip. 

"  My  uncle  had  great  faith  in  him,"  said  Anna, 
slightly  aggrieved  by  the  laugh. 

"  Your  uncle  was  one  of  the  best  farmers  in 
Germany,  I  have  always  heard.  He  was  so  ex- 
perienced, and  so  clever,  that  he  could  have  led  a 
hundred  Dellwigs  round  by  the  nose.  Dellwig  was 
naturally  quite  small,  as  we  say,  in  the  presence  of 
your  uncle.  He  knew  very  well  it  would  be  useless 
to  be  anything  but  immaculate  under  such  a  master. 
Perhaps  your  uncle  thought  he  would  go  on  being 
immaculate  from  sheer  habit,  with  nobody  to  look 
after  him." 

"  I  suppose  he  did,"  said  Anna  doubtfully.  "  He 
told  me  to  keep  him.  It's  quite  certain  that  /  can't 
look  after  him." 

They  passed  Axel  Lohm,  also  riding.  He  was 
on    Trudi's  side   of  the   road.     He  looked   pleased 


I50  THE  BENEFACTRESS         chap,  x 

when  he  saw  Anna  with  his  sister.  Trudi  whipped 
up  the  cobs,  regardless  of  his  feelings,  and  tore  past 
him,  scattering  the  sand  right  and  left.  When  she 
was  abreast  of  him,  she  winked  her  eye  at  him  with 
perfect  solemnity. 
Axel  looked  stony. 


CHAPTER   XI 

Neither  Trudi  nor  Anna  had  ever  worked  so  hard 
as  they  did  during  the  few  days  that  ended  March 
and  began  April.  Everything  seemed  to  happen  at 
once.  The  house  was  in  a  sudden  uproar.  There 
were  people  whitewashing,  people  painting,  people 
putting  up  papers,  people  bringing  things  in  carts 
from  Stralsund,  people  trimming  up  the  garden, 
people  coming  out  to  offer  themselves  as  servants, 
Dellwig  coming  in  and  shouting,  Manske  coming 
round  and  glorifying — Anna  would  have  been  com- 
pletely bewildered  if  it  had  not  been  for  Trudi, 
who  was  with  her  all  day  long,  going  about  with  a 
square  of  lace  and  muslin  tucked  under  her  waist- 
ribbon  which  she  felt  was  becoming  and  said  was  an 
apron. 

Trudi  was  enjoying  herselt  hugely.  She  saw 
Jungbluth's  waves  slowly  straightening  themselves 
out  of  her  hair,  and  for  the  first  time  in  her  life  re- 
mained cahr»  as  she  watched  them  go.  She  even 
began  to  have  aspirations  towards  Uncle  Joachim's 
better  life  herself,  and  more  than  once  entered  into  a 
serious  consideration  of  the  advantages  that  might 
result  from  getting  rid  at  one  stroke  of  Bill  her 
husband,  and  Billy  and  Tommy  her  two  sons,  and 
from  making  a  fresh  start  as  one  of  Anna's  twelve. 


152  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

Frau  Manske  and  Frau  Dellwig  could  not  face 
her  infinite  superciliousness  more  than  once,  and 
kept  out  of  the  way  in  spite  of  their  burning 
curiosity.  When  Dellwig's  shouts  became  intoler- 
able, she  did  not  hesitate  to  wince  conspicuously,  and 
to  put  up  her  hand  to  her  head.  When  Manske 
forgot  that  it  was  not  Sunday,  and  began  to  preach, 
she  would  interrupt  him  with  a  brisk  "  Ja^  ja^  sehr 
schon,  sehr  schon^  aber  lieber  Herr  Pastor^  you  must 
tell  us  all  this  next  Sunday  in  church  when  we  have 
time  to  listen — my  friend  has  not  a  minute  now  in 
which  to  appreciate  the  opinions  of  the  Apostel 
FaulusT 

"  I  believe  you  are  being  unkind  to  my  parson," 
said  Anna,  who  could  not  always  understand  Trudi's 
rapid  German,  but  saw  that  Manske  went  away 
dejected. 

"  My  dear,  he  must  be  kept  in  his  place  if  he 
tries  to  come  out  of  it.  You  don't  know  what  a 
set  these  pastors  are.  They  are  not  like  your  clergy- 
men. If  you  are  too  kind  to  that  man  you'll  have 
no  peace.  I  remember  in  my  father's  time  he  came 
to  dinner  every  Sunday,  sat  at  the  bottom  of  the 
table,  and  when  the  pudding  appeared  made  a  bow 
and  went  away." 

"  He  didn't  like  pudding  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know  if  he  liked  it  or  not,  but  he  never 
got  any.  It  was  a  good  old  custom  that  the  pastor 
should  withdraw  before  the  pudding,  and  Axel  has 
not  kept  it  up.  My  father  never  had  any  bother 
with  him." 

"  But  what  has  the  pudding  that  he  didn't  get  ten 
years  ago  to  do  with  your  being  unkind  to  him  now  V 

"  I  wanted  to  explain  the  proper  footing  for  him 
to  be  on." 


XI  THE  BENEFACTRESS  153 

"  And  the  proper  footing  is  a  puddingless  one  ? 
Well,  in  my  house  neither  pudding  nor  kindness  in 
suitable  quantities  shall  be  withheld  from  him,  so 
don't  ill-use  him  more  than  you  feel  is  absolutely 
necessary  for  his  good." 

*'  Oh,  you  are  a  dear  little  thing  !  "  said  Trudi, 
putting  her  hands  on  Anna's  shoulders  and  looking 
into  her  eyes — they  were  both  tall  young  women,  and 
their  eyes  were  on  a  level — "  I  wonder  what  the  end 
of  you  will  be.  When  you  know  all  these  people 
better  you'll  see  that  my  way  of  treating  them, 
which  you  think  unkind,  is  the  only  way.  You 
must  turn  up  your  nose  as  high  as  it  will  go  at 
them,  and  they  will  burst  with  respect.  Don't  be 
too  friendly  and  confiding — they  won't  understand 
it,  and  will  be  sure  to  think  that  something  must  be 
wrong  about  you,  and  will  begin  to  backbite  you, 
and  invent  all  sorts  of  horrid  stories  about  you. 
And  as  for  the  pastor,  why  should  he  be  allowed  to 
treat  your  rooms  as  though  they  were  so  many 
pulpits,  and  you  as  though  you  had  never  heard  of 
the  Apostel  Pauhis  ?  " 

Anna  admitted  that  she  was  not  always  in  the 
proper  frame  of  mind  for  these  unprovoked  sermons, 
but  refused  to  believe  in  the  necessity  for  turning  up 
her  nose.  She  ostentatiously  pressed  Manske,  the 
very  next  time  he  came,  to  stay  to  the  evening 
meal,  which  was  rather  of  the  nature  of  a  picnic  in 
those  unsettled  days,  but  at  which,  for  Letty's  sake, 
there  was  always  a  pudding  ;  and  she  invited  him  to 
eat  pudding  three  times  running,  and  each  time  he 
accepted  the  offer  ;  and  each  time,  when  she  had 
helped  him,  she  fixed  her  eyes  with  a  defiant  gravity 
on  Trudi's  face. 

Axel  came  in  sometimes  when  he  had  business  at 


154  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

the  farm,  and  was  shown  what  progress  had  been 
made.  Trudi  was  as  interested  as  though  it  had 
been  her  own  house,  and  took  him  about,  demand- 
ing his  approval  and  admiration  with  an  enthusiasm 
that  spread  to  Anna,  and  she  and  Axel  soon  became 
good  friends.  The  Stralsund  wall-papers  were  so 
dreadful  that  Anna  had  declared  she  would  have 
most  of  the  rooms  whitewashed  ;  the  hall  had  been 
done,  exchanging  its  pea-green  coat  for  one  of  virgin 
purity,  and  she  had  thought  it  so  fresh  and  clean, 
and  so  appropriate  to  the  simplicity  of  the  better 
life,  that  to  the  amazement  of  the  workmen  she 
insisted  on  the  substitution  of  whitewash  in  both 
dining  and  drawing-room  for  the  handsome  choco- 
late-coloured papers  already  in  those  rooms. 

"The  twelve  will  think  it  frightful,"  said  Trudi. 

*'  But  why  ^  "  asked  Anna,  who  had  fallen  in  love 
with  whitewash.  "  It  is  purity  itself  It  will  be 
symbolical  of  the  innocence  and  cleanliness  that  will 
be  in  our  hearts  when  we  have  got  used  to  each  other, 
and  are  happy," 

Trudi  looked  again  at  the  hall,  into  which  the 
afternoon  sun  was  streaming.  It  did  look  very  clean, 
certainly,  and  exceedingly  cheerful  ;  she  was  sure, 
however,  that  it  would  never  be  symbolical  of  any 
heart  that  came  into  it.  But  then  Trudi  was  sceptical 
about  hearts. 

At  the  end  of  Easter  week,  when  Trudi  was  be- 
ginning to  feel  slightly  tired  of  whitewash  and 
scrambled  meals,  and  to  have  doubts  as  to  the  per- 
manent becomingness  of  aprons,  and  misgivings  as 
to  the  effect  on  her  complexion  of  running  about  a 
cold  house  all  day  long,  answers  to  the  advertisements 
began  to  arrive,  and  soon  arrived  in  shoals.  These 
letters  acted  as  bellows  on  the  flickering  flame  of  her 


XI  THE  BENEFACTRESS  155 

zeal.  She  found  them  extraordinarily  entertaining, 
and  would  meet  Manske  in  the  hall  when  he  brought 
them  round,  and  take  them  out  of  his  hands,  and 
run  with  them  to  Anna,  leaving  him  standing  there 
uncertain  whether  he  ought  to  stay  and  be  consulted, 
or  whether  it  was  expected  of  him  that  he  should  go 
home  again  without  having  unburdened  himself  of  all 
the  advice  he  felt  that  he  contained.  He  deplored  what 
he  called  das  impulsive  Temperament  of  the  Grafin. 
Always  had  she  been  so,  since  the  days  she  climbed 
his  cherry-trees  and  helped  the  birds  to  strip  them  ; 
and  when,  with  every  imaginable  precaution,  he  had 
approached  her  father  on  the  subject,  and  carefully 
excluding  the  word  cherry  hinted  that  the  climbing  of 
trees  was  a  perilous  pastime  for  young  ladies,  old 
Lohm  had  burst  into  a  loud  laugh,  and  had  sworn  that 
neither  he  nor  any  one  else  could  do  anything  with 
Trudi.  He  actually  had  seemed  proud  that  she 
should  steal  cherries,  for  he  knew  very  well  why  she 
climbed  the  trees,  and  predicted  a  brilliant  future  for 
his  only  daughter  ;  to  which  Manske  had  listened 
respectfully  as  in  duty  bound,  and  had  gone  home 
unconvinced. 

But  Anna  did  not  let  him  stand  long  in  the  hall, 
and  came  to  fetch  him  and  beg  him  to  help  her  read 
the  letters  and  tell  her  what  he  thought  of  them.  In 
spite  of  Trudi's  advice  and  example  she  continued  to 
treat  the  pastor  with  the  deference  due  to  a  good 
and  simple  man.  V^'hat  did  it  matter  if  he  talked 
twice  as  much  as  he  need  have  done,  and  wearied  her 
with  his  habit  of  puffing  Christianity  as  though  it 
were  a  quack  medicine  of  which  he  was  the  special 
patron  ?  He  was  sincere,  he  really  believed  some- 
thing, and  really  felt  something,  and  after  five  days 
with    Trudi  Anna    turned    to   Manske's  elementary 


156  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

convictions  with  relief.  In  five  days  she  had  come 
to  be  very  glad  that  Trudi  stood  in  no  need  of  a 
place  among  the  twelve. 

Most  of  the  women  who  wrote  in  answer  to  the 
advertisement  sent  photographs,  and  their  letters  were 
pitiful  enough,  either  because  of  what  they  said  or  be- 
cause of  what  they  tried  to  hide  ;  and  Anna's  apprecia- 
tion of  Trudi  received  a  great  shock  when  she  found 
that  the  letters  amused  her,  and  that  the  photographs, 
especially  those  of  the  old  ones  or  the  ugly  ones, 
moved  her  to  a  mirth  little  short  of  unseemly.  After 
all,  Trudi  was  taking  a  great  deal  upon  herself,  Anna 
thought,  reading  the  letters  unasked,  helping  her  to 
open  them  unasked,  hurrying  down  to  fetch  them 
unasked,  and  deluging  her  with  advice  about  them 
unasked.  She  saw  she  had  made  a  mistake  in  allow- 
ing her  to  see  them  at  all.  She  had  no  right  to 
expose  the  petitions  of  these  unhappy  creatures  to 
Trudi's  inquisitive  and  diverted  eyes.  This  fact  was 
made  very  patent  to  her  when  one  of  the  letters  that 
Trudi  opened  turned  out  to  be  from  a  person  she 
had  known.  "Why,"  cried  Trudi,  her  face  twink- 
ling with  excitement,  "  here's  one  from  a  girl  who 
was  at  school  with  me.  And  her  photo  too — what 
a  shocking  scarecrow  she  has  grown  it'. to  !  She  is 
only  two  years  older  than  I  am,  but  might  be  forty. 
Just  look  at  her — and  she  used  to  think  none  of  us 
were  good  enough  for  her.  Don't  have  her,  what- 
ever you  do — she  married  one  of  the  officers  in  Bill's 
first  regiment,  and  treated  him  so  shamefully  that  he 
shot  himself.  Imagine  her  boldness  in  writing  like 
this  !  "     And  she  began  eagerly  to  read  the  letter. 

Anna  got  up  and  took  it  out  of  her  hands.  It 
was  an  unexpected  action,  or  Trudi  would  have  held 
on  tighter.     "  She  never  dreamed  you  would  see  what 


XI  THE  BENEFACTRESS  157 

she  wrote,"  said  Anna,  "  and  it  would  be  dishonour- 
able of  me  to  let  you.  And  the  other  letters  too — 
I  have  been  thinking  it  over — they  are  only  meant 
for  me  ;  and  no  one  else,  except  perhaps  the  parson, 
ought  to  see  them," 

"  Except  perhaps  the  parson  !  "  cried  Trudi, 
greatly  offended.  "  And  why  except  perhaps  the 
parson  ? " 

'*  I  can't  always  read  the  German  writing,"  ex- 
plained Anna. 

"  But  surely  a  woman  of  your  own  age,  who  isn't 
such  a  simpleton  as  the  parson,  is  the  best  adviser 
you  can  have." 

"  But  you  laugh  at  the  letters,  and  they  are  all  so 
unhappy." 

Trudi  went  back  to  Lohm  early  that  day. 
"  She  has  taken  it  into  her  head  that  I  am  not  to 
read  the  letters,"  she  said  to  her  brother  with  no 
little  indignation. 

"  It  would  be  a  great  breach  of  confidence  if  she 
allowed  you  to,"  he  replied  ;  which  was  so  unsatis- 
factory that  she  drove  into  Stralsund  that  very 
afternoon,  and  consoled  herself  with  the  pliable  Bibi. 

Bibi's  nose  seemed  more  unsuccessful  than  ever 
after  having  had  Anna's  before  her  for  nearly  a  week  ; 
but  then  the  richness  of  the  girl !  And  such  a  good- 
natured,  generous  girl,  who  would  adore  her  sister- 
in-law  and  make  her  presents.  Contemplating  the 
good  Bibi  in  her  afternoon  splendour  from  Paris, 
Trudi's  heart  stirred  within  her  at  the  thought  of  all 
that  was  within  Axel's  reach  if  only  he  could  be  in- 
duced to  put  out  his  hand  and  take  it.  Anna  would 
never  marry  him,  Trudi  was  certain — would  never 
marry  any  one,  being  completely  engrossed  by  her 
philanthropic  follies  ;  but   if  she  did,  what  was  her 


158  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

probable  income  compared  to  Bibi's  ?  And  Axel 
would  never  look  at  Bibi  so  long  as  that  other  girl 
lived  next  door  to  him  ;  nobody  could  expect  him 
to.  Anna  was  too  pretty  ;  it  was  not  fair.  And 
Bibi  was  so  very  plain  ;  which  was  not  fair  either. 

The  Regierungsprasidentin,  a  cousin  by  marriage 
of  Bibi's,  but  a  member  of  an  ancient  family  of  the 
Mark,  was  delighted  to  see  Trudi  and  to  question 
her  about  the  new  and  eccentric  arrival.  Trudi  had 
offered  to  take  Anna  to  call  on  this  lady,  and  had 
explained  that  it  was  her  duty  to  call ;  but  Anna  had 
said  there  was  no  hurry,  and  had  talked  of  some  day, 
and  had  been  manifestly  bored  bv  the  prospect  of 
making  new  acquaintances. 

"  Is  she  quite — quite  in  her  right  senses.''  "  asked 
the  Regierungsprasidentin,  when  Trudi  had  described 
all  they  had  been  doing  in  Anna's  house,  and  all  Anna 
meant  to  do  with  her  money,  and  had  made  her  de- 
scription so  smart  and  diverting  that  the  Regierungs- 
prasidentin, an  alert  little  lady,  with  ears  perpetually 
pricked  up  in  the  hope  of  catching  gossip,  felt  that 
she  had  not  enjoyed  an  afternoon  so  much  for  years. 

Bibi  sat  listening  with  her  mouth  wide  open. 
It  was  an  artless  way  of  hers  when  she  was  much 
interested  in  a  conversation,  and  was  deplored  by 
those  who  wished  her  well. 

"  Oh  yes,  she  is  quite  in  her  senses.  Rather  too 
sure  she  knows  best,  always,  but  quite  in  her  senses." 

*'  Then  she  is  very  religious  .''  " 

"  Not  in  the  ordinary  way,  I  should  think.  She 
goes  in  for  nature.  Gott  in  der  Natur,  and  that  sort 
of  thing.  If  the  sun  shines  more  than  usual  she  goes 
and  stands  in  it,  and  turns  up  her  eyes  and  gushes. 
There's  a  crocus  in  the  garden,  and  when  we  came 
to  it  yesterday  she  stopped  in  front  of  it  and  rhap- 


XI  THE  BENEFACTRESS  159 

sodised  for  ten  minutes  about  things  that  have 
nothing  to  do  with  crocuses — chiefly  about  the  lieben 
Gott.  And  all  in  EngHsh,  of  course,  and  it  sounds 
worse  in  EngHsh." 

"But  then,  my  dear,  she  is  rehgious?  " 

"  Oh,  well,  the  pastor  would  not  call  it  religion. 
It's  a  sort  of  huddle-muddle  pantheism  as  far  as  it  is 
anything  at  all."  From  which  it  will  be  seen  that 
Trudi  was  even  more  frank  about  her  friends  behind 
their  backs  than  she  was  to  their  faces. 

She  drove  back  to  Lohm  in  a  discontented  frame 
of  mind.  "  What's  the  good  of  anything.'^  "  was  the 
mood  she  was  in.  She  had  over-tired  herself  helping 
Anna,  and  she  was  afraid  that  being  so  much  in  cold 
rooms  and  passages,  and  washing  in  hard  water,  had 
made  her  skin  coarse.  She  had  caught  sight  of  her- 
self in  a  glass  as  she  was  leaving  the  Regierungs- 
prasidentin,  and  had  been  disconcerted  by  finding  that 
she  did  not  look  as  pretty  as  she  felt.  Nor  was  she 
consoled  for  this  by  the  consciousness  that  she  had 
been  unusually  amusing  at  Anna's  expense  ;  for  she 
was  only  too  certain  that  the  Regierungsprasidentin, 
when  repeating  all  she  had  told  her  to  her  friends, 
would  add  that  Trudi  Hasdorf  had  terribly  eingepackt 
— dreadful  word,  descriptive  of  the  faded  state  im- 
mediately preceding  wrinkles,  and  held  in  just  abhor- 
rence by  every  self-respecting  v/oman .  Of  what  earthly 
use  was  it  to  be  cleverer  and  more  amusing  than  other 
people  if  at  the  same  time  you  had  eingepackt  ? 

"  What  a  stupid  world  it  is,"  thought  Trudi,  driv- 
ing along  the  ckaussee  in  the  early  April  twilight.  A 
mist  lay  over  the  sea,  and  the  pale  sickle  of  the  young 
moon  rose  ghost-like  above  the  white  shroud.  In- 
land the  stars  were  faintly  shining,  and  all  the  earth 
beneath  was  damp   and  fragrant.      It  was  Saturday 


i6o  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

evening,  and  the  two  bells  of  Lohm  Church  were 
plaintively  ringing  their  reminder  to  the  countryside 
that  the  week's  work  was  ended,  and  God's  day 
came  next.  "  Oh,  the  stupid  world,"  thought  Trudi. 
"  If  I  stay  here  I  shall  be  bored  to  death — that 
Estcourt  child  and  her  governess  have  got  on  to  my 
nerves — horrid  fat  child  with  turned-in  toes,  and 
flabby,  boneless  woman,  only  held  together  by  her 
hairpins.  I  am  sick  of  governesses  and  children — 
wherever  one  goes,  there  they  are.  If  I  go  home, 
there  are  those  noisy  little  boys  and  Fraulein  Schultz 
worrying  all  day,  and  then  there's  that  tiresome  Bill 
coming  in  to  meals.  Anna  and  Bibi  are  just  in  the 
position  I  would  like  to  be  in — no  husbands  and 
children,  and  lots  of  money."  And  staring  straight 
before  her,  with  eyes  dark  with  envy,  she  fell  into 
gloomy  musings  on  the  beauty  of  Bibi's  dress,  and 
the  blindness  of  fate,  throwing  away  a  dress  like  that 
on  a  Bibi,  when  it  was  so  eminently  suited  to  tall, 
slim  women  like  herself ;  and  it  was  fortunate  for 
Axel's  peace  that  when  she  reached  Lohm  the  first 
thing  she  saw  was  a  letter  from  the  objectionable 
Bill  telling  her  to  come  home,  because  the  foreign 
prince  who  was  honorary  colonel  of  the  regiment  was 
expected  immediately  in  Hanover,  and  there  were  to 
be  great  doings  in  his  honour. 

She  left,  all  smiles,  the  next  morning  by  the  first 
train. 

"  Miss  Estcourt  will  miss  you,"  said  Axel,  "  and 
will  wonder  why  you  did  not  say  good-bye.  I  am 
afraid  your  journey  will  be  unpleasant,  too,  to-day. 
I  wish  you  had  stayed  till  to-morrow." 

"  Oh,  I  don't  mind  the  Sunday  people  once  in  a 
way,"  said  Trudi,  gaily,  "  And  please  tell  Anna 
how  it  was  I  had  to  go  so  suddenly.     I  have  started 


XI  THE  BENEFACTRESS  i6i 

her,  at  least,  with  the  workmen  and  people  she  wants. 
I  shall  see  her  in  a  few  weeks  again,  you  know,  when 
Bill  is  at  the  manoeuvres." 

"  A  few  weeks  !     Six  months." 

"  Well,  six  months.  You  must  both  try  to  exist 
without  me  for  that  time." 

"  You  seem  very  pleased  to  be  off,"  he  said  smil- 
ing, as  she  climbed  briskly  into  the  dog-cart  and  took 
the  reins,  while  her  maid,  with  her  arms  full  of  bags, 
was  hoisted  up  behind. 

"Oh,  so  pleased  I  "  said  Trudi,  looking  down  at 
him  with  sparkling  eyes.  "  Princes  and  parties  are 
jollier  any  day  than  whitewash  and  the  better  life." 

"  And  brothers." 

"  Oh — brothers.  By  the  way,  I  never  saw  Bibi 
look  better  than  she  did  yesterday.  She  has  improved 
so  much  nobody  would  know " 

"  You  will  miss  your  train,"  said  Axel,  pulling  out 
his  watch. 

"  Well,  good-bye  then,  alter  Junge.  Work  hard, 
do  your  duty,  and  don't  let  your  thoughts  linger  too 
much  round  strange  young  ladies.  They  never  do, 
I  think  you  said .''  Well,  so  much  the  better,  for  it's 
no  good,  no  good,  no  good  !  "  And  Trudi,  who 
was  in  tremendous  spirits,  put  her  whip  to  the  brim 
of  her  hat  by  way  of  a  parting  salute,  touched  up  the 
cobs,  and  rattled  off  down  the  drive  on  the  road  to 
Jungbluth  and  glory.  She  turned  her  head  before 
she  finally  disappeared,  to  call  back  her  oracular  "  No 
good !  "  once  again  to  Axel,  who  stood  watching  her 
from  the  steps  of  his  solitary  house. 


M 


CHAPTER   XII 

So  Anna  was  left  to  herself  again.  She  was  astonished 
at  the  rapidity  of  Trudi's  movements.  Within  one 
week  she  had  heard  of  her,  met  her,  liked  her,  begun  to 
like  her  less,  and  lost  her.  She  had  flashed  across  the 
Kleinwalde  horizon,  and  left  a  trail  of  workmen  and 
new  servants  behind,  with  whom  Anna  was  now  occu- 
pied, unaided,  from  morning  till  night.  Miss  Leech 
and  Letty  did  all  they  could,  but  their  German  being 
restricted  to  quotations  from  the  Erl-Konig  and  the 
Lied  von  der  GlockCy  it  could  not  be  brought  to  bear 
with  any  profitable  results  on  the  workmen.  The 
servants,  too,  were  a  perplexity  to  Anna.  Their 
cheapness  was  extraordinary,  but  their  quality  curious. 
Her  new  parlour-maid — for  she  felt  unequal  to  coping 
with  German  men-servants  —  wore  her  arms  naked 
all  day  long.  Anna  thought  she  had  tucked  up  her 
sleeves  in  her  zeal  for  thoroughness,  but  when  she 
appeared  with  the  afternoon  coffee — the  local  tea  was 
undrinkable — she  still  had  bare  arms  ;  and,  examin- 
ing her  more  closely,  Anna  saw  that  it  was  her  usual 
state,  for  her  dress  was  sleeveless.  Nor  was  her  want 
of  sleeves  her  only  peculiarity.  Anna  began  to 
wonder  whether  her  house  would  ever  be  ready  for 
the  twelve. 

The  answers  to  the   philanthropic   advertisement 


CHAP.  XII       THE  BENEFACTRESS  163 

were  in  a  proportion  of  fifty  to  one  answer  to  the 
advertisement  for  a  companion.  There  were  fifty 
ladies  without  means  willing  to  be  idle,  to  one  lady 
without  means  willing  to  work.  It  worried  Anna 
terribly,  being  obliged  by  want  of  room  and  money 
to  limit  the  number  to  twelve.  She  could  hardly 
bear  to  read  the  letters,  knowing  that  nearly  all  had 
to  be  rejected.  "See  how  many  sad  lives  are  being 
dragged  through  while  we  are  so  comfortable,"  she 
said  to  Manske,  when  he  brought  round  fresh  piles 
of  letters  to  add  to  those  already  heaped  on  her 
table. 

He  shook  his  head  in  perplexity.  He  was  be- 
wildered by  the  masses  of  answers,  by  the  appar- 
ent universality  of  impoverishment  and  hopelessness 
among  Christian  ladies  of  good  family. 

He  could  not  come  himself  more  than  once  a  day, 
and  the  letters  arrived  by  every  post ;  so  in  the  after- 
noon he  sent  Herr  Klutz,  the  young  cleric  of  poetic 
promptings,  who  had  celebrated  Anna  on  her  arrival 
in  a  poem  which  for  freshness  and  spontaneousness 
equalled,  he  considered,  the  best  sonnets  that  had 
ever  been  written.  What  a  joy  it  was  to  a  youth  of 
imagination,  to  a  poet  who  thought  his  features  not 
unlike  Goethe's,  and  who  regarded  it  as  by  no  means 
an  improbability  that  his  brain  should  turn  out  to  be 
stamped  with  the  same  resemblance,  to  walk  daily 
through  the  gleaming,  whispering  forest,  swinging  his 
stick  and  composing  snatches  not  unworthy  ot  her  of 
whom  they  treated,  his  face  towards  the  magic  Schloss 
and  its  enchanted  princess,  and  his  pockets  full  of 
her  letters  !  Herr  Klutz's  coat  was  clerical,  but  his 
brown  felt  hat  and  the  flower  in  his  buttonhole  were 
typical  of  the  worldliness  within.  "  A  poet,"  he 
assured  himself  often,  "  is  a  citizen  of  the  world,  and 


1 64  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

is  not  to  be  narrowed  down  to  any  one  circle  or 
creed."  But  he  did  not  expound  this  view  to  the 
good  man  who  was  helping  him  to  prepare  for  the 
examination  that  would  make  him  a  full-fledged 
pastor,  and  received  his  frequent  blessings,  and  assisted 
at  prayers  and  intercessions  of  which  he  was  the  sub- 
ject, with  outward  decorum. 

The  first  time  he  brought  the  letters,  Anna 
received  him  with  her  usual  kindness ;  but  there 
was  something  in  his  manner  that  displeased  her, 
whether  it  was  self-assurance,  or  conceit,  or  a  way 
he  had  of  looking  at  her,  she  could  not  tell,  nor 
did  she  waste  many  seconds  trying  to  decide  ;  but 
the  next  day  when  he  came  he  was  not  admitted 
to  her  presence,  nor  the  next  after  that,  nor  for  some 
time  to  come.  This  surprised  Herr  Klutz,  who 
was  of  Dellwig's  opinion  that  the  most  superior 
woman  was  not  equal  to  the  average  man  ;  and  take 
away  any  advantage  of  birth  or  position  or  wealth 
that  she  might  possess,  why,  there  she  was,  only  a 
woman,  a  creature  made  to  be  conquered  and  brought 
into  obedience  to  man.  Being  young  and  poetic  he 
differed  from  Dellwig  on  one  point  ;  to  Dellwig, 
woman  was  a  servant  ;  to  Klutz,  an  admirable  toy. 
Clearly  such  a  creature  could  only  be  gratified  by 
opportunities  of  seeing  and  conversing  with  members 
of  the  opposite  sex.  The  Miss's  conduct,  therefore, 
in  allowing  her  servant  to  take  the  letters  from  him 
at  the  door,  puzzled  him. 

He  often  met  Miss  Leech  and  Letty  on  his  way 
to  or  from  Kleinwalde,  and  always  stopped  to  speak 
to  them  and  to  teach  them  a  few  German  sentences 
and  practise  his  own  small  stock  of  English  ;  and 
from  them  he  easily  discovered  all  that  the  young 
woman  he  favoured  with  his  admiration  was  doing. 


xii  THE  BENEFACTRESS  165 

Lohm,  riding  over  to  Kleinwalde  to  settle  differences 
between  Dellwig  and  the  labourers,  or  to  try 
offenders,  met  these  three  several  times,  and  supposed 
that  Klutz  must  be  courting  the  governess. 

The  day  Trudi  left,  Lohm  had  gone  round  to 
Anna  and  delivered  his  sister's  message  in  a  slightly 
embellished  form.  "  You  will  have  everything  to  do 
now  unassisted,"  he  said.  "  I  do  trust  that  in  any 
difficulty  you  will  let  me  help  you.  If  the  workmen 
are  insolent,  for  instance,  or  if  your  new  servants  are 
dishonest  or  in  any  way  give  you  trouble.  You 
know  it  is  my  duty  as  Amtsvorsteher  to  interfere 
when  such  things  happen." 

"You  are  very  kind,"  said  Anna  gratefully,  look- 
ing up  at  the  grave,  good  face,  "  but  no  one  is 
insolent.  And  look — here  is  some  one  who  v/ants  to 
come  as  companion.  It  is  the  first  of  the  answers  to 
that  advertisement  that  pleases  me." 

Lohm  took  the  letter  and  photograph  and  ex- 
amined them.  "  She  is  a  Penheim,  I  see,"  he  said. 
"  It  is  a  very  good  family,  but  some  of  its  branches 
have  been  reduced  to  poverty,  as  so  many  of  our  old 
families  have  been." 

*'  Don't  you  think  she  would  do  very  well  ^ " 

"  Yes,  if  she  is  and  does  all  she  says  in  her  letter. 
You  might  propose  that  she  should  come  at  first  for 
a  few  weeks  on  trial.  You  may  not  like  her,  and  she 
may  not  appreciate  philanthropic  housekeeping." 

Anna  laughed.  "  I  am  doubly  anxious  to  get 
some  one  soon,"  she  said,  "  because  my  sister-in-law 
wants  Letty  and  Miss  Leech." 

Letty  and  Miss  Leech  heaved  tragic  sighs  at  this  ; 
they  had  no  desire  whatever  to  go  home. 

"  Will  you  not  feel  rather  forlorn  when  they  are 
gone,  and  you  are  quite  alone  among  strangers  ? " 


i66  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

"  I  shall  miss  them,  but  I  don't  mean  to  be  for- 
lorn," said  Anna,  smiling. 

"  The  courage  of  the  little  thing  !  "  thought  Lohm  ; 
"  Ready  to  brave  anything  in  pursuit  of  her  ideals. 
It  makes  one  ashamed  of  one's  own  grumblings  and 
discouragements." 

CD 

Anna  arranged  with  Frau  von  Penheim  that  she 
should  come  at  once  on  a  three  months'  trial ;  and 
immediately  this  was  settled  she  wrote  to  Susie  to  ask 
what  day  Letty  was  to  be  sent  home.  She  had  had 
no  communication  with  Susie  since  that  angry  lady's 
departure.  To  Peter  she  had  written,  explaining 
her  plans  and  her  reasons,  and  her  hopes  and  yearn- 
ings, and  had  received  a  hasty  scrawl  in  reply  dated 
from  Estcourt,  conveying  his  blessing  on  herself  and 
her  scheme.  "  Susie  came  straight  down  here,"  he 
wrote,  "  because  of  the  Alderton  wedding,  to  which 
she  was  not  asked,  and  went  to  bed.  You  know, 
my  dear  little  sister,  anything  that  makes  you  happy 
contents  me.  I  wish  you  could  have  seen  your  way 
to  benefiting  reduced  English  ladies,  for  you  are  a 
long  way  off ;  but  of  course  you  have  the  house  free 
over  there.  Don't  let  Miss  Leech  leave  you  till 
you    are    perfectly    satisfied    with    your    companion. 

Yesterday  I  landed  the  biggest "  etc.      In  a  word, 

Peter,  in  accordance  with  his  invariable  custom,  was 
on  her  side. 

The  day  before  Frau  von  Penheim  was  to  arrive, 
Susie's  answer  to  Anna's  letter  came.     Here  it  is  : — 

"  Dear  Anna — Your  letter  surprised  me,  though 
I  might  have  known  by  now  what  to  expect  of  you. 
Still,  I  v/as  surprised  that  you  should  not  even  offer 
to  make  the  one  return  in  your  power  for  all  I  have 
done  for  you.     As  I  feel   I  have   a  right  to  some 


XII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  167 

return  I  don't  hesitate  to  tell  you  that  I  think  you 
ought  to  keep  Letty  for  a  year  or  two,  or  even 
longer.  Even  if  you  kept  her  till  she  is  eighteen,  and 
dressed  her  and  fed  her  (don't  feed  her  too  much),  it 
would  only  be  four  years ;  and  what  are  four  years  I 
should  like  to  know,  compared  to  the  fifteen  I  had 
you  on  my  hands  ?  I  was  talking  to  Herr  Schumpf 
about  her  the  other  day — his  bills  were  so  absurd 
that  I  made  him  take  something  off — and  he  said  by 
all  means  let  her  stay  in  Germany.  Everybody 
speaks  German  nowadays,  and  Letty  will  pick  it  up 
at  once  in  that  awful  place  of  yours.  I  was  so  ill 
when  I  got  back  that  I  went  to  Estcourt,  and  had  to 
stay  in  bed  for  days,  the  doctor  coming  every  day, 
and  sometimes  twice.  He  said  he  didn't  wonder, 
when  I  told  him  all  I  had  gone  through.  Peter  was 
quite  sorry  for  me.  Send  Miss  Leech  back.  Give 
her  a  month's  notice  for  me  the  day  you  get  this, 
and  see  if  you  can't  find  some  German  who  will  go 
to  your  place — I  can't  remember  its  wretched  name 
without  looking  in  my  address  book — and  give  Letty 
lessons  every  day.  The  rest  of  the  time  she  can 
talk  German  to  your  twelve  victims.  I  believe 
masters  in  Germany  only  charge  about  6d.  an  hour, 
so  it  won't  ruin  you.  Make  her  take  lots  of  exercise, 
and  let  her  ride.  She  has  outgrown  her  old  habit, 
but  German  tailors  are  so  cheap  that  a  new  one  will 
cost  next  to  nothing,  and  any  horse  that  shakes  her 
up  well  will  do.  I  shall  be  quite  happy  about  her 
diet,  because  I  know  you  don't  have  anything  to  eat. 
I  was  at  the  Ennistons'  last  night.  They  seemed 
very  sorry  for  me  being  so  nearly  related  to  some- 
body cracked  ;  but  after  all,  as  I  tell  people,  I'm  not 
responsible  for  my  husband's  relations. — Your  affec- 
tionate Susie  Estcourt." 


ft* 


1 68  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

"I  have  never  seen  Hilton  so  upset  as  she  was 
after  that  German  trip.  She  cried  if  any  one  looked 
at  her.  Poor  thing,  no  wonder.  The  doctor  says 
she  is  all  nerves." 

The  evening  meal  was  in  progress  at  Kleinwalde 
when  this  letter  came.  The  dining-room  was  finished, 
and  it  was  the  first  meal  served  there  since  its  trans- 
formation. No  one  who  had  seen  it  on  that  dark 
day  of  Anna's  arrival  would  have  recognised  it,  so 
cheerful  did  it  look  with  its  whitewashed  walls. 
There  were  no  dark  corners  now  where  china 
shepherds  smiled  in  vain  ;  the  western  light  filled  it, 
and  to  a  person  lately  come  from  Susie's  Hill  Street 
house,  it  was  a  refreshment  to  sit  in  any  place  so 
simple  and  so  clean.  Reforms,  too,  had  been  made 
in  the  food,  and  the  bread  was  no  longer  disfigured 
by  caraway  seeds.  A  great  bowl  of  blue  hepaticas, 
fresh  from  the  forest,  stood  on  the  table  ;  and  the 
hepaticas  were  the  exact  colour  of  Anna's  eyes. 
When  Letty  saw  her  mother's  handwriting  she  turned 
cold.  It  was  the  warrant  that  was  to  banish  her 
from  Eden,  casting  her  back  into  the  outer  darkness 
of  the  Popular  Concerts  and  the  literature  lectures. 
She  was  in  the  act  of  raising  a  spoonful  of  pudding 
to  her  already  opened  mouth,  when  she  caught  sight 
of  the  well-known  writing.  She  hesitated,  her  hand 
shook,  and  finally  she  laid  her  spoon  down  again  and 
pushed  her  plate  back.  At  the  great  crises  of  life 
who  can  go  on  eating  pudding  .''  What  then  was 
her  relief  and  joy  to  see  her  aunt  get  up,  come  round 
to  where  she  was  sitting  braced  to  hear  the  worst,  put 
her  arms  round  her  neck,  and  to  feel  herself  being 
kissed.  "  You  are  going  to  stay  with  me  after  all  !  " 
cried    Anna    delightedly.       "Dear    little     Letty — I 


XII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  169 

should  have  missed  you  horribly.  Aren't  you  glad  ? 
Your  mother  says  I'm  to  keep  you  for  ever  so  long." 

"  Oh,  I  say — how  ripping  !  "  exclaimed  Letty  ;  and 
being  a  practical  person  at  once  resumed  and  finished 
her  pudding. 

Miss  Leech,  too,  looked  exceedingly  pleased. 
How  could  she  be  anything  but  pleased  at  the 
prospect  of  staying  with  a  person  who  was  always  so 
kind  and  thoughtful  as  Anna  ?  Her  feelings,  some- 
how, were  never  hurt  by  Anna  ;  Lady  Estcourt 
seemed  to  have  a  special  knack  of  jumping  on  them 
every  time  she  spoke  to  her.  She  knew  she  ought 
not  to  have  such  sensitive  feelings,  and  felt  that  it 
was  more  her  fault  than  any  one  else's  if  they  were 
hurt  ;  yet  there  they  were,  and  being  hurt  was  pain- 
ful, and  living  with  some  one  so  even  tempered  as 
Anna  was  very  peaceful  and  pleasant.  Mr.  Jessup 
would  have  liked  Anna.  She  wished  he  could  have 
known  her.  A  higher  compliment  it  was  not  in 
Miss  Leech's  power  to  pay. 

And  when  Anna  saw  the  pleasure  on  Miss  Leech's 
face,  and  saw  that  she  thought  she  was  to  stay  too, 
she  felt  that  for  no  sister-in-law  in  the  world  would 
she  wipe  it  out  with  that  month's  notice.  She  decided 
to  say  nothing,  but  simply  to  keep  her  as  well  as 
Letty.  Her  two  thousand  a  year  was  in  her  eves  of 
infinite  elasticity.  Never  having  had  any  money, 
she  had  no  notion  of  how  far  it  would  go  ;  and  she 
did  not  hesitate  to  come  to  a  decision  which  would 
probably  ultimately  oblige  her  to  reduce  the  number 
of  those  persons  Susie  described  as  victims. 

The  next  day  the  companion  arrived.  Anna  went 
out  into  the  hall  to  meet  her  when  she  heard  the 
approaching  wheels  of  the  shepherd  -  plaid  chariot. 
She  felt  rather  nervous  as  she  watched  her  emerging 


lyo  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

from  beneath  the  hood,  for  she  knew  how  much  of 
the  comfort  and  peace  of  the  twelve  would  depend  on 
this  lady.  She  felt  exceedingly  nervous  when  the 
lady,  immediately  upon  shaking  hands,  asked  if  she 
could  speak  to  her  alone. 

"  Natiirlich^''  said  Anna,  a  vague  fear  lest  Fritz, 
the  coachman,  should  have  insulted  her  on  the  way 
coming  over  her,  though  she  only  knew  Fritz  as  the 
mildest  of  men. 

She  led  the  way  into  the  drawing-room.  "  Now 
what  is  she  going  to  tell  me  dreadful  .^ "  she  thought, 
as  she  invited  her  to  sit  on  the  sofa,  having  been  in- 
structed by  Trudi  that  that  was  the  place  where 
strangers  expected  to  sit.  "  Suppose  she  isn't  going 
to  stay,  and  I  shall  have  to  look  for  some  one  all 
over  again  }  Perhaps  the  lining  of  the  carriage  has 
been  too  much  for  her.  Bitte^'  she  said  aloud,  with 
an  uneasy  smile,  motioning  Frau  von  Penheim 
towards  the  sofa. 

The  new  companion  was  a  big,  elderly  lady  with 
a  sensible  face.  Her  boots  were  thick,  and  she  wore 
a  mackintosh.  She  sat  down,  and  looking  more 
attentively  at  Anna,  smiled.  Most  people  who  saw 
her  for  the  first  time  did  that.  It  was  such  a  change 
and  a  pleasure  after  seeing  plain  faces,  and  dull  faces, 
and  vain,  pretty  faces  for  an  indefinite  period,  to  rest 
one's  eyes  on  a  person  so  charming  yet  manifestly 
preoccupied  by  other  matters  than  her  charms. 

"  I  feel  it  my  duty,"  said  the  lady  in  German, 
"before  we  go  any  further  to  tell  you  the  truth." 

This  was  alarming.  The  lady's  manner  was 
solemn.  Anna  inclined  her  head,  and  felt  scared. 
She  wished  that  Axel  Lohm  were  somewhere  near. 

*'  I  see  you  are  young,"  continued  the  lady,  "  and 
I  presume  that  you  are  inexperienced." 


XII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  171 

"  Not  so  young,"  murmured  Anna,  who  felt 
particularly  young  and  uncomtortable  at  that  moment, 
and  very  unlike  the  mistress  of  a  house  interviewing 
a  companion.      "  Not  so  young — twenty-five." 

"  Twenty-five  ?  You  do  not  look  it.  But  what 
is  twenty-five  ? " 

Anna  did  not  know,  so  said  nothing. 

"  My  position  here  would  be  a  responsible  one," 
continued  the  lady,  scrutinising  Anna's  face,  and 
smiling  again  at  what  she  saw  there.  "  Taking 
charge  of  a  motherless  girl  always  is.  And  the 
circumstances  in  this  case  are  peculiar." 

"  Yes,"  said  Anna,  "  they  are  even  more  peculiar 

than    you  imagine "       And    she   was    about    to 

explain  the  approaching  advent  of  the  victims  when 
the  lady  held  up  her  hand  in  a  masterful  way,  as 
though  enjoining  silence,  and  said,  "  First  hear  me. 
Through  a  series  of  misfortunes  I  have  been  reduced 
to  poverty  since  my  husband's  death.  But  I  do  not 
choose  to  Uve  on  the  charity  of  relatives,  which  is 
the  most  unbearable  form  of  chanty  calling  itself  by 
that  holy  name,  and  I  am  determined  to  work  for  my 
bread." 

She  paused.  Anna  could  find  nothing  better  to 
say  than  "  Oh." 

"  Out  of  consideration  for  my  relatives,  who  are 
enraged  at  my  resolution,  and  think  I  ought  to  starve 
quietly  on  what  they  choose  to  give  me  sooner  than 
make  myself  conspicuous  by  working,  I  have  called 
myself  Frau  von  Penheim.  I  will  not  come  here 
under  false  pretences,  and  to  you,  privatelv,  I  will 
confess  that  my  proper  title  is  the  Princess  Ludwig, 
of  that  house." 

She  stopped  to  observe  the  effect  of  this  announce- 
ment.      Anna    was    confounded.       A    princess    was 


172  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

not  at  all  what  she  wanted.  She  felt  that  she  had 
no  use  whatever  for  princesses.  How  could  she  ever 
expect  one  to  get  up  early  and  see  that  the  twelve 
received  their  meat  in  due  season  ?  "  Oh,"  she 
said  again,  and  then  was  silent. 

The  princess  watched  her  closely.  She  was  very 
poor,  and  very  anxious  to  have  the  place.  "  Oh  "  is 
so  English,"  she  said,  smiling  to  hide  her  anxiety. 
"  We  say  '  ach.^  " 

Anna  laughed. 

"  And  do  not  think  that  all  German  princesses 
are  like  your  English  ones,"  she  went  on  eagerly. 
"  My  father-in-law  was  raised  to  the  rank  of  Fiirst 
for  services  rendered  to  the  state.  He  had  a  large 
family,  and  my  husband  was  a  younger  son." 

Still  Anna  was  silent.  Then  she  said  "  I — I 
wish "  and  then  stopped. 

"  What  do  you  wish,  my  dear  child  } " 

"  I  wish — that  I — that  you " 

"  That  you  had  known  it  beforehand  .^  Then  you 
would  never  have  taken  me,  even  on  trial,"  was  the 
prompt  reply. 

Anna's  eyes  said  plainly,  "  No,  I  would  not." 

"  And  it  is  so  important  that  I  should  find  some- 
thing to  do.  At  first  I  answered  advertisements  in 
my  real  name,  and  received  my  photograph  back  by 
the  next  post.  This,  and  the  anger  of  my  family, 
decided  me  to  drop  the  title  altogether.  But  I  had 
always  resolved  that  if  I  did  find  a  place  I  would 
confess  to  my  employer.  It  is  a  terrible  thing  to  be 
very  poor,"  she  added,  staring  straight  before  her 
with  eyes  growing  dim  at  her  remembrances. 

"  Yes,"  said  Anna,  under  her  breath. 

"  To  have  nothing,  nothing  at  all,  and  to  be 
burdened  at  the  same  time  by  one's  birth." 


XII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  173 

"Oh,"  murmured  Anna,  with  a  little  catch  in  her 
voice. 

"  And  to  be  dependent  on  people  who  only  wish 
that  you  were  safely  out  of  the  way — dead." 

"  Married,"  whispered  Anna. 

"  Why,  what  do  you  know  about  it.'*"  said  the 
princess,  turning  quickly  to  her  ;  for  she  had  been 
thinking  aloud  rather  than  addressing  any  one. 

"  I  know  everything  about  it,"  said  Anna  ;  and 
in  a  rush  of  bad  but  eager  German  she  told  her  cf 
those  old  days  when  even  the  sweeping  of  crossings 
had  seemed  better  than  living  on  relations,  and  how 
since  then  all  her  heart  had  been  filled  with  pity  for 
the  type  of  poverty  called  genteel,  and  how,  now  that 
she  was  well  off,  she  was  going  to  help  women  who 
were  in  the  same  sad  situation  in  which  she  had  been. 
Her  eyes  were  wet  when  she  finished.  She  had 
spoken  with  extraordinary  enthusiasm,  a  fresh  wave 
of  passionate  sympathy  with  such  lives  passing  over 
her  ;  and  not  until  she  had  done  did  she  remember 
that  she  had  never  before  seen  this  lady,  and  that  she 
was  saying  things  to  her  that  she  had  not  as  yet  said 
to  the  most  intimate  of  her  friends. 

She  felt  suddenly  uncomfortable  ;  her  eyelashes 
quivered  and  drooped,  and  she  blushed. 

The  princess  contemplated  her  curiously.  "  I 
congratulate  you,"  she  said,  laying  her  hand  lightly 
for  a  moment  on  Anna's.  "  The  idea  and  the  good 
intentions  will  have  been  yours,  whatever  the  result 
may  be." 

This  was  not  very  encouraging  as  a  response  to  an 
outburst.  "  I  have  told  you  more  than  I  tell  most 
people,"  Anna  said,  looking  up  shamefacedly, 
"  because  you  have  hr.d  much  the  same  experiences 
that  I  have." 


174  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

"  Except  the  uncle  at  the  end.  He  makes  such  a 
difference.  May  I  ask  if  many  of  the  ladies 
answered  both  advertisements  ?  " 

"  No,  they  did  not." 

"Not  one.?" 

"  Not  one." 

The  princess  thought  that  working  for  one's 
bread  was  distinctly  preferable  to  taking  Anna's 
charity  ;  but  then  she  was  of  an  unusually  sturdy 
and  independent  nature.  "  I  can  assure  you,"  she 
said  after  a  short  silence,  "  that  I  would  do  my  best 
to  look  after  your  house  and  your — your  friends  and 
yourself." 

"  But  I  want  some  one  who  will  do  everything — 
order  the  meals,  train  the  servants — everything.  And 
get  up  early  besides,"  said  Anna,  her  voice  full  of 
doubt.  The  princess  really  belonged,  she  felt,  to  the 
category  of  sad,  sick,  and  sorry  ;  and  if  she  had 
asked  for  a  place  among  the  twelve  there  would  have 
been  little  difficulty  in  giving  her  one.  But  the 
companion  she  had  imagined  was  to  be  a  real  help, 
some  one  she  could  order  about  as  she  chose,  certainly 
not  a  person  unused  to  being  ordered  about.  Even 
the  parson's  sister-in-law  Helena  would  have  been 
better  than  this. 

"  I  would  do  all  that,  naturally.  Do  you  think 
if  I  am  not  too  proud  to  take  wages  that  I  shall  be 
too  proud  to  do  the  work  for  which  they  are  paid  .? " 

"  Would  you  not  prefer "  began  Anna,  and 

hesitated. 

"  Would  I  not  prefer  what,  my  child  ? " 

"  Prefer  to — would  it  not  be  more  agreeable  for 
you  to  come  and  live  here  without  working?  I 
could  find  another  companion,  and  I  would  be  happy 
if  you  will  stay  here  as — as  one  of  the  others." 


XII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  175 

The  princess  laughed  ;  a  hearty,  big  laugh  in 
keeping  with  her  big  person. 

"No,"  she  said.  "I  would  not  like  that  at  all. 
But  thank  you,  dear  child,  for  making  the  offer.  Let 
me  stay  here  and  do  what  v/ork  you  want  done,  and 
then  you  pay  me  for  it,  and  we  are  quits.  I  assure 
you  there  is  a  solid  satisfaction  in  being  quits.  I 
shall  certainly  not  expect  any  more  consideration  than 
you  would  give  to  a  Frau  Schultz.  And  I  will  be 
able  to  take  care  of  you  ;  and  I  think,  if  you  will  not 
be  angry  with  me  for  saying  so,  that  you  greatly  need 
taking  care  of." 

"  Well,  then,"  said  Anna,  with  an  effort,  "  let  us 
try  it  for  three  months." 

An  immense  load  was  lifted  off  the  princess's 
heart  by  these  words.  "  You  will  not  regret  it,"  she 
said  emphatically. 

But  Anna  was  not  so  sure.  Though  she  did  her 
best  to  put  a  cheerful  face  on  her  new  bargain  she 
could  not  help  fearing  that  her  enterprise  had  begun 
badly.  She  was  unusually  pensive  throughout  the 
evening. 


CHAPTER    XIII 

What  the  Princess  Ludwig  thought  of  her  new 
place  it  would  be  difficult  to  say.  She  accepted  her 
position  as  minister  to  the  comforts  of  the  hitherto 
comfortless  without  remark  and  entirely  as  a  matter 
of  course.  She  got  up  at  hours  exemplary  in  their 
earliness,  and  was  about  the  house  rattling  a  bunch  of 
keys  all  day  long.  She  was  wholly  practical,  and  as 
destitute  of  illusions  as  she  was  of  education  in  the 
ordinary  sense.  Her  knowledge  of  German  literature 
was  hardly  more  extensive  than  Letty's,  and  of  other 
tongues  and  other  literatures  she  knew  and  cared 
nothing.  As  for  illusions,  she  saw  things  as  they 
are,  and  had  never  at  any  period  of  her  life  possessed 
enthusiasms.  Nor  had  she  the  least  taste  for  hidden 
meanings  and  symbols.  Maeterlinck,  if  she  had 
heard  of  him,  would  have  been  dismissed  by  her  with 
an  easy  smile.  Anna's  whitewash  to  her  was  white- 
wash— a  disagreeable  but  economical  wall-covering. 
She  knew  and  approved  of  it  as  cheap  ;  how  could 
she  dream  that  it  was  also  symbolic  ?  She  never 
dreamed  at  all,  either  sleeping  or  waking.  If  by 
some  chance  she  had  fallen  into  musings,  she  would 
have  mused  blood  and  iron,  the  superiority  of  the 
German  nation,  cookery  in  its  three  forms — feine^ 
hurgerliche^  and   Hausmannskost^  in   all   which   forms 


CHAP.  XIII     THE  BENEFACTRESS  177 

she  was  pre-eminent  in  skill — she  would  have  mused, 
that  is,  on  facts,  plain  and  undisputed.  If  she  had  had 
children  she  would  have  made  an  excellent  mother  ; 
as  it  was  she  made  excellent  cakes — also  a  form  of 
activity  to  be  commended.  She  was  a  Dettingen 
before  her  marriage,  and  the  Dettingens  are  one  of 
the  oldest  Prussian  families,  and  have  produced  more 
first-rate  soldiers  and  statesmen  and  a  larger  number 
of  mothers  of  great  men  than  any  other  family  in 
that  part.  The  Penheims  and  Dettingens  had  inter- 
married continually,  and  it  was  to  his  mother's 
Dettingen  blood  that  the  first  Fiirst  Penheim  owed 
the  energy  that  procured  him  his  elevation.  Princess 
Ludwig  was  a  good  example  of  the  best  type  of 
female  Dettingen.  Like  many  other  illiterates,  she 
prided  herself  particularly  on  her  sturdy  common 
sense.  Regarding  this  quality,  which  she  possessed, 
as  more  precious  than  others  which  she  did  not 
possess,  she  was  not  likely  to  sympathise  much  either 
with  Anna's  plan  for  making  people  happy,  or  with 
those  who  were  willing  to  be  made  happy  in  such  a 
way.  A  sensible  woman,  she  thought,  will  always 
find  work,  and  need  not  look  far  for  a  home.  She 
herself  had  been  handicapped  in  the  search  by  her 
unfortunate  title,  yet  with  patience  even  she  had 
found  a  haven.  Only  the  lazy  and  lackadaisical — the 
morally  worthless,  that  is — would,  she  was  convinced, 
accept  such  an  offer  as  Anna's.  It  was  not,  however, 
her  business.  Her  business  was  to  look  after  Anna's 
house  ;  and  she  did  it  with  a  zeal  and  thoroughness 
that  struck  terror  into  the  hearts  of  the  maid-servants. 
Trudi's  fitful  energy  was  nothing  to  it.  Trudi  had 
introduced  workmen  and  chaos  ;  the  princess,  with  a 
rapidity  and  skill  little  short  of  amazing  to  any  one 
unacquainted  with  the  capabilities  of  the  well-trained 

N 


178  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

German  Hausfrau^  cleared  out  the  workmen,  and 
reduced  the  chaos  to  order.  Within  three  weeks  the 
house  was  ready,  and  Anna,  palpitating,  saw  the 
moment  approaching  when  the  first  batch  of  unhappy 
ones  might  be  received. 

Manske's  time  was  entirely  taken  up  writing 
letters  of  inquiry  concerning  the  applicants,  and  it 
was  surprising  in  what  huge  batches  they  had  to  be 
weeded  out.  Of  fifty  applications  received  in  one 
day,  three  or  four,  after  due  inquiry,  would  alone 
remain  for  further  consideration  ;  and  of  these  three 
or  four,  after  yet  closer  inquiry,  sometimes  not  one 
would  be  left. 

At  first  Anna  asked  the  princess's  advice  as 
well  as  Manske's,  and  it  was  when  she  was  pre- 
sent at  the  consultations  that  the  heap  into  which  the 
letters  of  the  unworthy  were  gathered  was  biggest. 
All  those  ladies  belonging  to  the  burgerliche  or  middle 
classes  were  in  her  eyes  wholly  unworthy.  If  Anna 
had  proposed  to  take  washerwomen  into  her  home, 
and  required  the  princess's  help  in  brightening  their 
lives,  it  would  have  been  given  in  the  full  measure, 
pressed  down  and  running  over,  that  befits  a  Christian 
gentlewoman  ;  but  for  the  Burgerlicheyiy  those  be- 
longing to  the  class  more  immediately  below  her  own, 
the  princess's  feeling  was  only  Christian  so  long  as 
they  kept  a  great  way  off.  There  was  so  much  good 
sense  in  the  objections  she  made  that  Anna,  who  did 
her  best  to  keep  an  open  mind  and  listen  attentively 
to  advice,  was  forced  to  agree  with  her,  and  added 
letters  to  the  ever-increasing  heap  of  the  rejected 
which  she  might  otherwise  have  reserved  for  riper 
consideration.  After  two  or  three  days,  however,  it 
became  clear  to  her  that  if  she  continued  to  consult 
the  princess,  no   one  would   be   accepted  at  all,  for 


xiii  THE  BENEFACTRESS  179 

Manske's  respect  for  that  lady  was  so  profound  that 
he  was  invariably  of  her  opinion.  She  did  not,  there- 
fore, invite  her  again  to  assist  at  the  interviews.  Still, 
all  she  had  said,  and  the  knowledge  that  she  must 
know  her  own  countrywomen  fairly  thoroughly, 
made  Anna  prudent ;  and  so  it  came  about  that  the 
first  arrivals  were  to  be  only  three  in  number,  chosen 
without  reference  to  the  princess,  and  one  of  them 
was  burger  Itch. 

"  We  can  meanwhile  proceed  with  our  inquiries 
about  the  remaining  nine,"  said  Manske,  "  and  the 
gracious  Miss  will  be  always  gaining  experience." 

She  trod  on  air  during  the  days  preceding  the 
arrival  of  the  chosen.  To  say  that  she  was  blissful 
would  be  but  an  inadequate  description  of  her  state 
of  mind.  The  weather  was  beautiful,  and  it  increased 
her  happiness  tenfold  to  know  that  their  new  life  was 
to  begin  in  sunshine.  She  had  never  a  doubt  as 
to  their  delight  in  the  sun-chequered  forest,  in  the 
freshness  of  the  glittering  sea,  in  the  peacefulness  of 
the  quiet  country  life,  so  quiet  that  the  week  seemed 
to  be  all  Sundays.  Were  not  these  things  sufficient 
for  herself?  Did  she  ever  tire  of  those  long  pine 
vistas,  with  the  narrow  strip  of  clearest  blue  between 
the  gently  waving  tree-tops .?  The  dreamy  murmur 
of  the  forest  gave  her  an  exquisite  pleasure.  To  see 
the  bloom  on  the  pink  and  grey  trunks  of  the  pines, 
and  the  sun  on  the  moss  and  lichen  beneath,  was  so 
deep  a  satisfaction  to  her  soul  that  the  thought  that 
others  who  had  been  knocked  about  by  life  would 
not  feel  it  too,  would  not  enter  with  profoundest 
thankfulness  into  this  other  world  of  peace,  never 
struck  her  at  all.  When  these  poor  tired  women, 
freed  at  last  from  every  care  and  every  anxiety,  had 
refreshed  themselves  with  the  music  and  fragrance 


i8o  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

of  the  forest,  there  was  the  garden  across  the  road  to 
enjoy,  with  the  marsh  ah-eady  strewn  with  kingcups 
on  the  other  side  of  the  hedge  already  turning  green ; 
and  the  sea  with  the  fishing-smacks  passing  up  and 
down,  and  the  silver  gleam  of  gulls'  wings  circling 
round  the  orange  sails,  and  eagles  floating  high  up 
aloft,  specks  in  the  infinite  blue  ;  and  then  there 
were  drives  along  the  coast  towards  the  north,  where 
the  wholesome  wind  blew  fresher  than  in  the  woods  ; 
and  quiet  evenings  in  the  roomy  house,  where  all  that 
was  asked  of  them  was  that  they  should  be  happy. 

"It's  a  lovely  plan,  isn't  it,  Letty  ? "  she  said 
joyously,  the  evening  before  they  were  to  arrive,  as 
she  stood  with  her  arm  round  Letty's  shoulder  at  the 
bottom  of  the  garden,  where  they  had  both  been 
watching  the  sails  of  the  fishing-smacks  during  those 
short  sunset  moments  when  they  looked  like  the 
bright  wings  of  spirits  moving  over  the  face  of  the 
placid  waters. 

"  I  should  rather  think  it  was,"  replied  Letty, 
who  was  profoundly  interested. 

They  got  up  at  sunrise  the  next  morning,  and 
went  out  into  the  forest  in  search  of  hepaticas 
and  windflowers  with  which  to  decorate  the  three 
bedrooms.  These  bedrooms  were  the  largest  and 
pleasantest  in  the  house.  Anna  had  given  up  her 
own  because  she  thought  the  windows  particularly 
pleasing,  and  had  gone  into  a  little  one  in  the  fervour 
of  her  desire  to  lavish  all  that  was  best  on  her  new 
friends.  The  rooms  were  furnished  with  special  care, 
an  immense  amount  of  thought  having  been  bestowed 
on  the  colour  of  the  curtains,  the  pattern  of  the 
porcelain,  and  the  books  filling  the  shelves  above 
each  writing-table.  The  colours  and  patterns  were 
the  nearest  approach  Berlin  could  produce  to  Anna's 


xiii  THE  BENEFACTRESS  i8i 

own  favourite  colours  and  patterns.  She  wasted  half 
her  time,  when  the  rooms  were  ready,  sitting  in  them 
and  picturing  what  her  own  delight  would  have  been 
if  she,  like  the  poor  ladies  for  whom  they  were 
intended,  had  come  straight  out  of  a  cold,  unkind 
world  into  such  pretty  havens. 

The  choice  of  books  had  been  a  great  difficulty, 
and  there  had  been  much  correspondence  on  the 
subject  with  Berlin  before  a  selection  had  been  made. 
Books  there  must  be,  for  no  room,  she  thought,  was 
habitable  without  them  ;  and  she  had  tried  to  imagine 
what  manner  of  literature  would  most  appeal  to  her 
unhappy  ones.  It  v/as  to  be  presumed  that  their 
ages  were  such  as  to  exclude  frivolity  ;  therefore  she 
bought  very  few  novels.  She  thought  Dickens  trans- 
lated into  German  would  be  a  safe  choice  ;  also 
Schlegel's  Shakespeare  for  loftier  moments.  The 
German  classics  were  represented  by  Goethe  in  one 
room,  Schiller  in  another,  and  Heine  in  the  third. 
In  each  room  also  there  was  a  German -English 
dictionary,  for  the  facilitation  of  intercourse.  Finally, 
she  asked  the  princess  to  recommend  something  they 
would  be  sure  to  like,  and  she  recommended  cookery 
books. 

"  But  they  are  not  going  to  cook,"  said  Anna, 
surprised. 

*'  Es  ist  egal — it  is  always  interesting  to  read  good 
recipes.  No  other  reading  affords  me  the  same 
pleasure." 

"  But  only  when  you  want  something  new 
cooked." 

"No,  no,  at  all  times,"  insisted  the  princess. 

Anna  could  not  quite  believe  that  such  a  taste 
was  general ;  but  in  case  one  of  the  three  should 
share  it,  she  put  a  cookery  book  in  one  bookcase.    In 


1 82  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

the  other  two  severally  to  balance  it,  she  slipt  at  the 
last  moment  a  volume  of  Maeterlinck,  to  which  at 
that  period  she  was  greatly  attached  ;  and  Matthew 
Arnold's  poems,  to  which  also  at  that  period  she  was 
greatly  attached. 

The  princess  went  about  with  pursed  lips  while 
these  preparations  were  in  progress  ;  and  when,  at 
sunrise  on  the  last  morning,  she  was  awakened  by 
stealthy  footsteps  and  smothered  laughter  on  the 
landing  outside  her  room,  and,  opening  her  door  an 
inch  and  peering  out  as  in  duty  bound  in  case  the 
sounds  should  be  emanating  from  some  unaccount- 
ably mirthful  maid-servant,  she  saw  Anna  and  Letty 
creeping  downstairs  with  their  hats  on  and  baskets  in 
their  hands,  she  guessed  what  they  were  going  to  do, 
and  got  back  into  bed  with  lips  more  pursed  than 
ever.  Did  she  not  know  who  had  been  chosen,  and 
that  one  of  the  three  was  a  burgerliche  ? 

About  eight  o'clock,  when  the  two  girls  were 
coming  out  of  the  forest  with  their  baskets  full  and 
their  faces  happy.  Axel  Lohm  was  riding  thoughtfully 
past,  having  just  settled  an  unpleasant  business  at 
Kleinwalde.  Dellwig  had  sent  him  an  urgent 
message  in  the  small  hours  ;  there  had  been  a  brawl 
among  the  labourers  about  a  woman,  and  a  man  had 
been  stabbed.  Axel  had  ordered  the  aggressor  to  be 
locked  up  in  the  little  room  that  served  as  a  tem- 
porary prison  till  he  could  be  handed  over  to  the 
Stralsund  authorities.  His  wife,  a  girl  of  twenty, 
was  ill,  and  she  and  her  three  small  children  depended 
entirely  on  the  man's  earnings.  The  victim  appeared 
to  be  dying,  and  the  man  would  certainly  be  punished. 
What,  then,  thought  Axel,  was  to  become  of  the  wife 
and  the  children  }  Frau  Dellwig  had  told  him  that 
she   sent   soup  every  day  at  dinner-time,   but  soup 


XIII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  183 

once  a  day  would  neither  comfort  them  nor  make 
them  fat.  Besides,  he  had  a  notion  that  the  soup 
of  Frau  Dellwig's  charity  was  very  thin.  He  was 
riding  dejectedly  enough  down  the  road  on  his  way 
home,  looking  straight  before  him,  his  mouth  a  mere 
grim  line,  thinking  how  grievous  it  was  that  the 
consequences  of  sin  should  fall  with  their  most  terrific 
weight  nearly  always  on  the  innocent,  on  the  helpless 
women-folk,  and  the  weak  little  children,  when  Anna 
and  Letty  appeared,  talking  and  laughing,  on  the 
edge  of  the  forest. 

Letty.  we  know,  had  not  been  kindly  treated  by 
nature,  but  even  she  was  a  pleasing  object  in  her 
harmless  morning  cheerfulness  after  the  faces  he  had 
just  seen  ;  and  Anna's  beauty,  made  radiant  by 
happiness  and  contentment,  startled  him.  He  had  a 
momentary  twinge,  gone  almost  before  he  had  realised 
it,  a  sudden  clear  conception  of  his  great  loneliness.  The 
satisfaction  he  strove  to  extract  from  improving  his 
estate  for  the  benefit  of  his  brother  Gustav  appeared 
to  him  at  that  moment  to  bear  a  singular  resemblance, 
in  its  thinness,  to  Frau  Dellwig's  charitable  soup. 
He  got  off"  his  horse  to  speak  to  her,  and  rested  his 
eyes,  tired  by  looking  at  the  hideous  passions  on  the 
brawler's  face,  on  hers.  "  To-day  is  the  important 
day,  is  it  not  ? "  he  asked,  glancing  from  her  flower- 
like face  to  the  flowers. 

"  The  first  three  come  this  afternoon." 

"So  Manske  told  me.  You  are  very  happy,  I 
can  see,"  he  said,  smiling. 

"  I  never  was  so  happy  before." 

"  Your  uncle  was  a  wise  man.  He  told  me  he 
was  going  to  leave  you  Kleinwalde  because  he  felt 
sure  you  would  be  happy  leading  the  simple  life 
here." 


1 84  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

"  Did  he  talk  about  me  to  you  ? " 

"  After  his  last  visit  to  England  he  talked  about 
you  all  the  time," 

*' Oh  ?  "  said  Anna,  looking  at  him  thoughtfully. 
Uncle  Joachim,  she  remembered  perfectly,  had  urged 
two  things — the  leading  of  the  better  life,  and  the 
marrying  of  a  good  German  gentleman.  A  faint 
flush  came  into  her  face  and  faded  again.  She  had 
suddenly  become  aware  that  Axel  was  the  good 
German  gentleman  he  had  meant.  Well,  the  wisest 
uncle  was  subject  to  errors  of  judgment, 

"  I  trust  those  women  will  not  worry  you  too 
much,"  he  said,  thinking  how  immense  would  be  the 
pity  if  those  happy  eyes  ever  lost  their  joyousness. 

"  Worry  me  ,''  Poor  things,  they  won't  have  any 
energy  of  any  sort  left  after  all  they  have  gone 
through,      I  never  read  such  pitiful  letters." 

"  Well,  I  don't  know,"  said  Axel,  doubtfully. 
"  Manske  says  one  of  them  is  a  Treumann,  It  is  a 
family  distinguished  by  its  size  and  its  disagreeable- 
ness." 

"  Oh,  but  she  only  married  a  Treumann,  and 
isn't  one  herself." 

"  But  a  woman  generally  adopts  the  peculiarities 
of  the  family  she  marries  into,  especially  if  they  are 
unpleasant." 

"  But  she  has  been  a  widow  for  years.  And  is  so 
poor.     And  is  so  crushed." 

"  I  never  yet  heard  of  a  permanently  crushed 
Treumann,"  said  Axel,  shaking  his  head, 

*'  You  are  trying  to  make  me  uneasy,"  said  Anna, 
a  slight  touch  of  impatience  in  her  voice.  She  was 
singularly  sensitive  about  her  chosen  ones  ;  sensitive 
in  the  way  mothers  are  about  a  child  that  is 
deformed. 


XIII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  185 

"No,  no,"  he  said  quickly,  "  I  only  wish  to  warn 
you.  You  may  be  disappointed — it  is  just  possible." 
He  could  not  bear  to  think  of  her  as  disappointed. 

"  Pray,  do  you  know  anything  against  the  other 
two  .''  "  she  asked  with  some  defiance.  "  One  of  them 
is  a  Baroness  Elmreich,  and  the  other  is  a  Fraulein 
Kuhrauber." 

Axel  looked  amused.  "  I  never  heard  of  Fraulein 
Kuhrauber,"  he  said.  "  What  does  Princess  Ludwig 
say  to  her  coming  ^  " 

"  Nothing  at  all.     What  should  she  say  .?" 

It  was  Fraulein  Kuhrauber's  coming  that  had 
more  particularly  occasioned  the  pursing  of  the 
princess's  lips. 

"  I  know  some  Elmreichs,"  said  Axel.  "  A  few 
of  them  are  respectable  ;  but  one  branch  at  least  of 
the  family  is  completely  demoralised.  A  Baron 
Elmreich  shot  himself  last  year  because  he  had  been 
caught  cheating  at  cards.  And  one  of  his  sisters — 
oh,  well,  some  of  them  are  harmless,  I  believe." 

"  Thank  you." 

"  You  are  angry  with  me  ?  " 

"  Very." 

♦'  And  why  .?  " 

"  You  want  to  prejudice  me  against  these  poor 
things.  They  can't  help  what  distant  relations  do. 
They  will  get  away  from  them  in  my  house,  at  least, 
and  have  peace." 

"  Miss  Letty,  is  your  aunt  often — what  is  the 
word — so  fractious  ^  " 

"  Oh,  I  don't  know,"  said  Letty,  who  found  it 
dull  waiting  in  silence  while  other  people  talked. 
"  It's  breakfast  time  you  know,  and  people  can't 
stand  much  just  about  then." 

"  Oh,    youthful    philosopher  !  "    exclaimed    Axel. 


i86  THE  BENEFACTRESS     chap,  xiii 

"  So  young,  and  of  the  female  sex,  and  yet  to  have 
pierced  to  the  very  root  of  human  weakness !  " 

"  Stuff,"  said  Letty,  offended. 

"  What,  are  you  going  to  be  angry  too  ?  Then 
let  me  get  on  my  horse  and  go." 

"  It's  the  best  thing  you  can  do,"  said  Letty, 
always  frank,  but  doubly  so  when  she  was  hungry. 

"  Shall  you  come  and  see  us  soon  .?  "  Anna  asked, 
gathering  up  her  skirts  in  her  one  free  hand  pre- 
paratory to  crossing  the  muddy  road. 

"  But  you  are  angry  with  me." 

She  looked  up  and  laughed.  "  Not  now,"  she 
said  ;  "  I've  finished.  Do  you  think  I'm  going  to 
be  angry  long  this  pleasant  April  morning  ?  " 

"  I  smell  the  coffee,"  observed  Letty,  sniffing. 

*'  Then  I  will  come  to-morrow  if  I  may,"  said 
Axel,  "  and  make  the  acquaintance  of  Frau  von 
Treumann  and  Baroness  Elmreich." 

"  And  Fraulein  Kuhrauber,"  said  Anna,  with 
emphasis.  She  thought  she  saw  the  same  tendency 
in  him  that  was  so  manifest  in  the  princess — a  ten- 
dency to  ignore  the  very  existence  of  any  one  called 
Kuhrauber. 

"  And  Fraulein  Kuhrauber,"  repeated  Axel 
gravely. 

"  They've  burnt  the  toast  again,"  said  Letty  ; 
"  I  can  hear  them  scraping  off  the  black." 

"  I  wish  you  good  luck,  then,"  said  Axel,  taking 
off  his  hat ;  "  with  all  my  heart  I  wish  you  good 
luck,  and  that  these  ladies  may  very  soon  be  as 
happy  as  you  are  yourself." 

"  That's  nice,"  said  Anna,  approvingly ;  "  so 
much,  much  nicer  than  the  other  things  you  have 
been  saying."  And  she  nodded  to  him,  all  smiles, 
as  she  crossed  over  to  the  house  and  he  rode  away. 


CHAPTER   XIV 

Long  before  the  carriage  bringing  the  three  chosen 
ones  from  the  station  could  possibly  arrive,  Anna 
and  Letty  began  to  wait  in  the  hall,  standing  at  the 
windows,  going  out  on  to  the  steps,  looking  into  the 
different  rooms  every  few  minutes  to  make  sure  that 
everything  was  ready.  The  bedrooms  were  full  of 
the  hepaticas  of  the  morning  ;  the  coffee  had  been 
set  out  with  infinite  care  and  an  eye  to  effect  by 
Anna  herself  on  a  little  table  in  the  drawing-room  by 
the  open  window,  through  which  the  mild  April  air 
came  in  and  gently  fanned  the  curtains  to  and  fro  ; 
and  the  princess  had  baked  her  best  cakes  for  the 
occasion,  inwardly  deploring,  as  she  did  so,  that 
such  cakes  should  be  offered  to  such  people.  When 
she  had  seen  that  all  was  as  it  should  be,  she  with- 
drew into  her  own  room,  where  she  remained  darning 
sheets,  for  she  had  asked  Anna  to  excuse  her  from 
being  present  at  the  arrival.  "  It  is  better  that  you 
should  make  their  acquaintance  by  yourself,"  she 
said.  "  The  presence  of  too  many  strangers  at  first 
might  disconcert  them  under  the  circumstances." 

Miss  Leech  profited  by  this  remark,  made  in  her 
hearing,  and  did  not  appear  cither  ;  so  that  when  the 
carriage  drove  in  at  the  gate  only  Anna  and  Letty 

were  standincr  at  the  door  in  the  sunshine, 
o 


1 88  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

Anna's  heart  bumped  so  as  the  three  slowly  dis- 
entangled themselves  and  got  out,  that  she  could 
hardly  speak.  Her  face  flushed  and  grew  pale  by 
turns,  and  her  eyes  were  shinhig  with  something 
suspiciously  like  tears.  What  she  wanted  to  do  was 
to  put  her  arms  right  round  the  three  poor  ladies, 
and  kiss  them,  and  comfort  them,  and  make  up  for 
all  their  griefs.  What  she  did  was  to  put  out  a  very 
cold,  shaking  hand,  and  say  in  a  voice  that  trembled, 
"  Guten  Tag." 

"  Guten  Tag"  said  the  first  lady  to  descend  ; 
evidently,  from  her  mourning,  the  widowed  Frau 
von  Treumann. 

Anna  took  her  extended  hand  in  both  hers,  and 
clasping  it  tight  looked  at  its  owner  with  all  her 
heart  in  her  eyes.  "  Es  freut  mich  so — es  freut  mich 
so"  she  murmured  incoherently. 

'•'■  Ach — you  are  Miss  Estcourt  .^  "  asked  the  lady 
in  German. 

"  Yes,  yes,"  said  Anna,  still  clinging  to  her  hand, 
"  and  so  happy,  so  very  happy  to  see  you." 

Frau  von  Treumann  hereupon  made  some  remarks 
which  Anna  supposed  were  of  a  grateful  nature,  but 
she  spoke  so  rapidly  and  in  such  subdued  tones, 
glancing  round  uneasily  as  she  did  so  at  the  coach- 
man and  at  the  others,  and  Anna  herself  was  so 
much  agitated,  that  what  she  said  was  quite  incom- 
prehensible. Again  Anna  longed  to  throw  her  arms 
round  the  poor  woman's  neck,  and  interrupt  her 
with  kisses,  and  tell  her  that  gratitude  was  not 
required  of  her,  but  only  that  she  should  be  happy  ; 
but  she  felt  that  if  she  did  so  she  would  begin  to 
cry,  and  tears  were  surely  out  of  place  on  such  a 
joyful  occasion,  especially  as  nobody  else  looked  in 
the  least  like  crying. 


XIV  THE  BENEFACTRESS  189 

"  You  are  Frau  von  Treumann,  I  know,"  she 
said,  holding  her  hand,  and  turning  to  the  next  one 
and  beaming  on  her,  "  and  this  is  Baroness  Elm- 
reich  ?  " 

"  No,  no,"  said  the  third  lady  quickly,  "  /  am 
Baroness  Elmreich." 

Fraulein  Kuhrauber,  an  ample  person,  whose 
body,  swathed  in  travelling  cloaks,  had  blotted  out 
the  other  little  woman,  looked  frightened  and  apolo- 
getic, and  made  deep  curtseys, 

Anna  shook  their  hands  one  after  the  other  with 
all  the  warmth  that  was  glowing  in  her  heart.  Her 
defective  German  forsook  her  almost  completely. 
She  did  nothing  but  repeat  disconnected  ejaculations, 

*■'■  so  reizend — so  glilckUch — so  erf  rent "  and  fill  in 

the  gaps  with  happy,  quivering  smiles  at  each  in  turn, 
and  timid  little  pats  on  any  hand  within  her  reach. 

Letty  meanwhile  stood  in  the  shadow  of  the  door- 
way wishing  that  she  were  young  enough  to  suck 
her  thumb.  It  kept  on  going  up  to  her  mouth  of 
its  own  accord,  and  she  kept  on  pulling  it  down 
again.  This  was  one  of  the  occasions,  she  felt,  when 
the  sucking  of  thumbs  is  a  relief  and  a  blessing.  It 
gives  one's  superfluous  hands  occupation,  and  one's 
self  a  countenance.  She  shifted  from  one  foot  to  the 
other  uneasily,  and  held  on  tight  to  the  rebellious 
thumb,  for  the  tall  lady  who  had  got  out  first  was 
fixing  her  with  a  stare  that  chilled  her  blood.  The 
tall  lady,  who  was  very  tall  and  thin,  and  had  round 
unblinking  dark  eyes  set  close  together  like  an  owl's, 
and  strongly  marked  black  eyebrows,  said  nothing, 
but  examined  her  slowly  from  the  tip  of  the  bow  of 
ribbon  trembling  on  her  head  to  the  buckles  of  the 
shoes  creaking  on  her  feet.  Ought  she  to  offer  to 
shake  hands  with  her,   or  ought  she  to  wait  to  be 


I90  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

shaken  hands  with,  Letty  asked  herself  distractedly. 
Anyhow  it  was  rather  rude  to  stare  like  that.  She 
had  always  been  taught  that  it  was  rude  to  stare  like 
that. 

Anna  had  forgotten  all  about  her,  and  only 
remembered  her  when  they  were  in  the  drawing- 
room  and  she  had  begun  to  pour  out  the  coffee. 
"  Oh,  Letty,  where  are  you  ?  This  is  my  niece," 
she  said  ;  and  Letty  was  at  last  shaken  hands  with. 

"  Ah — she  keeps  you  company,"  said  the  baroness. 
"  You  found  it  lonely  here,  naturally." 

"  Oh  no,  I  am  never  lonely,"  said  Anna  cheer- 
fully, filling  the  cups  and  giving  them  to  Letty  to 
carry  round. 

"  How  pleasant  the  air  is  to-day,"  observed  Frau 
von  Treumann,  edging  her  chair  away  from  the 
window.  "  Damp,  but  pleasant.  You  like  fresh  air, 
see. 

"  Oh,  I  love  it,"  said  Anna  ;  "  and  it  is  so  beauti- 
ful here — so  pure,  and  full  of  the  sea." 

"  You  are  not  afraid  of  catching  cold,  sitting  so 
near  an  open  window  ?  " 

"  Oh,  is  it  too  much  for  you  ^  Letty,  shut  the 
window.  It  is  getting  chilly.  The  days  are  so  fine 
that  one  forgets  it  is  only  April." 

Anna  talked  German  and  poured  out  the  cofFee 
with  a  nervous  haste  unusual  to  her.  The  three 
women  sitting  round  the  little  table  staring  at  her 
made  her  feel  terribly  nervous.  She  was  happy 
beyond  words  to  have  got  them  safely  under  her 
own  roof  at  last,  but  she  was  nervous.  She  was 
determined  that  there  should  be  no  barriers  of  con- 
ventionality from  the  first  between  themselves  and 
her  ;  not  a  minute  more  of  their  lives  was  to  be 
wasted  ;  this  was  their  home,  and  she  was  all  ready 


XIV  THE  BENEFACTRESS  191 

to  love  them  ;  she  had  made  up  her  mind  that 
however  shy  she  felt  she  was  going  to  behave  as 
though  they  were  her  dear  friends — which  indeed, 
she  assured  herself,  was  exactly  what  they  were. 
Therefore  she  struggled  bravely  against  her  nervous- 
ness, addressing  them  collectively  and  singly,  saying 
whatever  came  first  into  her  head  in  her  anxiety  to 
say  something,  smiling  at  them,  pressing  the  prin- 
cess's cakes  on  them,  hardly  letting  them  drink  their 
coffee  before  she  wanted  to  give  them  more.  But  it 
was  no  good  ;  she  was  and  remained  nervous,  and 
her  hand  shook  so  when  she  lifted  it  that  she  was 
ashamed. 

Fraulein  Kuhrauber  was  the  one  who  stared  least. 
If  she  caught  Anna's  eye  her  own  drooped,  whereas 
the  eyes  of  the  other  two  never  wavered.  She  sat  on 
the  edge  of  her  chair  in  a  way  made  familiar  to  Anna 
by  intercourse  with  Frau  Manske,  and  whatever  any- 
body said  she  nodded  her  head  and  murmured  "  Ja^ 
eben^  She  was  obviously  ill  at  ease,  and  dropped  the 
sugar-tongs  when  she  was  offered  sugar  with  a  loud 
clatter  on  to  the  varnished  floor,  nearly  sweeping  the 
cups  off  the  table  in  her  effort  to  pick  them  up  again. 

"  Oh,  do  not  mind,"  said  Anna,  "  Letty  will  pick 
them  up.  They  are  stupid  things — much  too  big  for 
the  sugar-basin." 

"  Ja^  eben^''  said  Fraulein  Kuhrauber,  sitting  up 
and  looking  perturbed.  The  other  two  removed 
their  eyes  from  Anna's  face  for  a  moment  to  stare  at 
the  Fraulein.  The  baroness,  a  small,  fair  person 
with  hair  arranged  in  those  little  flat  curls  called  kiss- 
me-quicks  on  each  cheek,  and  wide-open  pale  blue 
eyes,  and  a  little  mouth  with  no  lips,  or  lips  so  thin 
that  they  were  hardly  visible,  sat  very  still  and 
straight,  and  had  a  way  of  moving  her  eyes  round 


192  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

from  one  face  to  the  other  without  at  the  same  time 
moving  her  head.  She  was  unmarried,  and  was 
probably  about  thirty-five,  Anna  thought,  but  she 
had  always  evaded  questions  in  the  correspondence 
about  her  age.  Fraulein  Kuhrauber  was  also  thirty- 
five,  and  as  large  and  blooming  as  the  baroness  was 
small  and  pale.  Frau  von  Treumann  was  over  fifty, 
and  had  had  more  sorrows,  judging  from  her  letters, 
than  the  other  two.  She  sat  nearest  Anna,  who 
every  now  and  then  laid  her  hand  gently  on  hers 
and  let  it  rest  there  a  moment,  in  her  determination 
to  thaw  all  frost  from  the  very  beginning.  "  Oh,  I 
quite  forgot,"  she  said  cheerfully — the  amount  of 
cheerfulness  she  put  into  her  voice  made  her  laugh 
at  herself — "  I  quite  forgot  to  introduce  you  to  each 
other." 

"We  did  it  at  the  station,"  said  Frau  von 
Treumann,  "  when  we  found  ourselves  all  entering 
your  carriage." 

"  The  Elmreichs  are  connected  with  the  Treu- 
manns,"  observed  the  baroness. 

"  We  are  such  a  large  family,"  said  Frau  von 
Treumann  quickly,  "  that  we  are  connected  with 
nearly  everybody." 

The  tone  was  cold,  and  there  was  a  silence. 
Neither  of  them,  apparently,  was  connected  with 
Fraulein  Kuhrauber,  who  buried  her  face  in  her  cup 
in  which  the  tea-spoon  remained  while  she  drank,  and 
heartily  longed  for  connections. 

But  she  had  none.  She  was  absolutely  without 
relations  except  deceased  ones.  She  had  been  an 
orphan  since  she  was  two,  cared  for  by  her  one  aunt 
till  she  was  ten.  The  aunt  died,  and  she  found  a  refuge 
in  an  orphanage  till  she  was  sixteen,  when  she  was 
told  that  she  must  earn  her  bread.     She  was  a  lazy 


XIV  THE  BENEFACTRESS  193 

girl  even  in  those  days,  who  Hked  eating  her  bread 
better  than  earning  it.  No  more,  however,  being 
forthcoming  in  the  orphanage,  she  went  into  a  pastor's 
family  as  Stiitze  der  llausfrau.  These  Stiitze,  or 
supports,  are  common  in  middle-class  German  families, 
where  they  support  the  mistress  of  the  house  in 
all  her  manifold  duties,  cooking,  baking,  mending, 
ironing,  teaching  or  amusing  the  children — being  in 
short  a  comfort  and  blessing  to  harassed  mothers. 
But  Fraulein  Kuhrauber  had  no  talent  whatever  for 
comforting  mothers,  and  she  was  quickly  requested 
to  leave  the  busy  and  populous  parsonage  ;  where- 
upon she  entered  upon  the  series  of  driftings  lasting 
twenty  years,  which  landed  her,  by  a  wonderful  stroke 
of  fortune,  in  Anna's  arms. 

When  she  saw  the  advertisment,  her  future  was 
looking  very  black.  She  was,  as  usual,  under  notice 
to  quit,  and  had  no  other  place  in  view,  and  had 
saved  nothing.  It  is  true  the  advertisement  only 
offered  a  home  to  women  of  good  family  ;  but  she 
got  over  that  difficulty  by  reflecting  that  her  family 
was  all  in  heaven,  and  that  there  could  be  no  relations 
more  respectable  than  angels.  She  wrote  therefore 
in  glowing  terms  of  the  paternal  Kuhrauber,  '''' gegen- 
w'drtig  mil  Gott^''  as  she  put  it,  expatiating  on  his 
intellect  and  gifts  (he  was  a  man  of  letters,  she  said), 
while  he  yet  dwelt  upon  earth.  Manske,  with  all  his 
inquiries,  could  find  out  nothing  about  her  except  that 
she  was,  as  she  said,  an  orphan,  poor,  friendless,  and 
struggling  ;  and  Anna,  just  then  impatient  of  the 
objections  the  princess  made  to  every  applicant, 
quickly  decided  to  accept  this  one,  against  whom  not 
a  word  had  been  said.  So  Fraulein  Kuhrauber,  who 
had  spent  her  life  in  shirking  work,  who  was  quite 
thriftless     and     improvident,    who     had     never     felt 

o 


194  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

particularly  unhappy,  and  whose  father  had  been  a 
postman,  found  herself  being  welcomed  to  Anna's 
home  with  an  enthusiasm  that  astonished  her,  being 
smiled  upon  and  patted,  having  beautiful  things 
said  to  her — things  the  very  opposite  to  those  to 
which  she  had  been  used,  things  to  the  effect  that 
she  was  now  to  rest  herself  for  ever,  and  to  be  sure 
and  not  do  anything  except  just  that  which  made  her 
happiest. 

It  was  very  wonderful.  It  seemed  much,  much 
too  good  to  be  true.  And  the  delight  that  filled  her 
as  she  sat  eating  excellent  cakes,  and  the  discomfort 
she  endured  because  of  the  stares  of  the  other  two 
women,  and  the  consciousness  that  she  had  never 
learned  how  to  behave  in  the  society  of  persons  with 
von  before  their  names,  produced  such  mingled  feel- 
ings of  ecstasy  and  fright  in  her  bosom  that  it  was 
quite  natural  she  should  drop  the  sugar-tongs,  and 
upset  the  cream-jug,  and  choke  over  her  coffee — all 
of  which  things  she  did,  to  Anna's  distress,  who 
suffered  with  her  in  her  agitation,  while  the  eyes  of 
the  other  two  watched  each  successive  catastrophe 
with  profoundest  attention. 

It  was  an  uncomfortable  half  hour.  "  I  am  shy, 
and  they  are  shy,"  Anna  said  to  herself,  apologising 
as  it  were  for  the  undoubted  flatness  that  prevailed. 
How  could  it  be  otherwise,  she  thought  ?  Did  she 
expect  them  to  gush.''  Heaven  forbid.  Yet  it  was 
an  important  crisis  in  their  lives,  this  passing  for  ever 
from  neglect  and  loneliness  to  love,  and  she  wondered 
vaguely  that  the  obviously  paramount  feeling  should 
be  interest  in  the  awkwardness  of  Fraulein  Kuh- 
rauber. 

Her  German  faltered,  and  threatened  to  give  out 
entirely.     The  inevitable  pause  came,  and  they  could 


XIV  THE  BENEFACTRESS  195 

hear  the  sparrows  quarrelling  in  the  golden  garden, 
and  the  creaking  of  a  distant  pump. 

''•  How  still  it  is,"  observed  the  baroness  with  a 
slight  shiver. 

"  You  have  no  farmyard  near  the  house  to  make 
it  more  cheerful,"  said  Frau  von  Treumann.  "  My 
f^ither's  house  had  the  garden  at  the  back,  and  the 
farmyard  in  the  front,  and  one  did  not  feel  so  cut  off 
from  everything.  There  was  always  something  going 
on  in  the  yard — always  life  and  noises." 

"  Really  ? "  said  Anna  ;  and  again  the  pump  and 
the  sparrows  became  audible. 

"  The  stillness  is  truly  remarkable,"  observed  the 
baroness  again. 

"  Ja,  eben^'  said  Fraulein  Kuhrauber. 

"  But  it  is  beautiful,  isn't  it,"  said  Anna,  gazing 
out  at  the  light  on  the  water.  "  It  is  so  restful,  so 
soothing.  Look  what  a  lovely  sunset  there  must  be 
this  evening.  We  can't  see  it  from  this  side  of  the 
house,  but  look  at  the  colour  of  the  grass  and  the 
water." 

"  Ach — you  are  a  friend  of  nature,"  said  Frau  von 
Treumann,  turning  her  head  for  a  brief  moment 
towards  the  window,  and  then  examining  Anna's 
face.  "  I  am  also.  There  is  nothing  I  like  more 
than  nature.     Do  you  paint  }  " 

"  I  wish  I  could." 

"  Ah,  then  you  sing — or  play  }  " 

"  I  can  do  neither." 

"  So  I  But  what  have  you  here,  then,  in  the  v/ay 
of  distractions,  of  pastimes.^  " 

"  I  don't  think  1  have  any,"  said  Anna,  smiling. 
*'  I  have  been  very  busy  till  now  making  things  ready 
for  you,  and  after  this  I  shall  just  enjoy  being 
ahve." 


196  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

Frau  von  Treumann  looked  puzzled  for  a  moment. 
Then  she  said  "  Ach  so'' 

There  was  another  silence. 

"  Have  some  more  coffee,"  said  Anna,  laying  hold 
of  the  pot  persuasively.  She  was  feeling  foolish,  and 
had  blushed  stupidly  after  that  Ach  so. 

*'  No,  no,"  said  Frau  von  Treumann,  putting  up 
a  protesting  hand,  "  you  are  very  kind.  Two  cups 
are  a  limit  beyond  which  voracity  itself  could  not  go. 
What  do  you  say  ?  You  have  had  three  ^  Oh, 
well,  you  are  young,  and  young  people  can  play  tricks 
with  their  digestions  with  less  danger  than  old  ones." 

At  this  speech  Fraulein  Kuhrauber's  four  cups 
became  plainly  written  on  her  guilty  face.  The 
thought  that  she  had  been  voracious  at  the  very  first 
meal  was  appalling  to  her.  She  hastily  pushed  away 
her  half-empty  cup — ^too  hastily,  for  it  upset,  and  in 
her  effort  to  save  it  it  fell  on  to  the  floor  and  was 
broken.     "  Ach^  Herr  Je  !  "  she  cried  in  her  distress. 

The  other  two  looked  at  each  other  ;  the  expression 
is  an  unusual  one  on  the  lips  of  gentlewomen. 

"  Oh,  it  does  not  matter — really  it  does  not," 
Anna  hastened  to  assure  her.  "  Don't  pick  it  up — 
Letty  will.  The  table  is  too  small  really.  There  is 
no  room  on  it  for  anything." 

"  Ja,  ehen^'  said  Fraulein  Kuhrauber,  greatly  dis- 
comfited, 

"  You  would  like  to  go  upstairs,  I  am  sure,"  said 
Anna  hurriedly,  turning  to  the  others.  "  You  must 
be  very  tired,"  she  added,  looking  at  Frau  von 
Treumann. 

"  I  am,"  replied  that  lady,  closing  her  eyes  for  a 
moment  with  a  little  smile  expressive  of  patient 
endurance. 

*'Then  we  will  go  up.     Come,"  she  said,  holding 


xrv  THE  BENEFACTRESS  197 

out  her  hand  to  Fhiulein  Kuhrauber.      "  No,  no — Jet 

Letty  pick  up  the  pieces "  for  the  Fraulein,  in  her 

anxiety  to  repair  the  disaster,  was  about  to  sweep  the 
remaining  cups  off  the  table  with  the  sleeve  of  her 
cloak. 

Anna  drew  her  nand  through  her  arm,  and  gave 
it  a  furtive  and  encouraging  stroke.  "  I  will  go  first 
and  show  you  the  way,"  she  said  over  her  shoulder  to 
the  others. 

And  so  it  came  about  that  Frau  von  Treumann 
and  Baroness  Elmreich  actually  found  themselves 
going  through  doors  and  up  stairs  behind  a  person 
called  Kuhrauber.  They  exchanged  glances  again. 
Whatever  might  be  their  private  objections  to  each 
other,  they  had  one  point  already  on  which  they 
agreed,  for  with  equal  heartiness  they  both  dis- 
approved of  Fraulein  Kuhrauber. 


CHAPTER   XV 

As  soon  as  Baroness  Elmreich  found  herself 
alone  in  her  bedroom,  she  proceeded  to  examine  its 
contents  with  minute  care.  Supper,  she  had  been 
told,  was  not  till  eight  o'clock,  and  she  had  not  much 
to  unpack  ;  so  laying  aside  her  hat  and  cloak,  and 
glancing  at  the  reflection  of  her  little  curls  in  the 
glass  to  see  whether  they  were  as  they  should  be,  she 
began  her  inspection  of  each  separate  article  in  her 
room,  taking  each  one  up  and  scrutinising  it,  holding 
the  jars  of  hepaticas  high  above  her  head  in  order  to 
see  whether  the  price  was  marked  underneath,  un- 
tidy ing  the  bed  to  feel  the  quality  of  the  sheets, 
poking  the  mattress  to  discover  the  nature  of  the 
stuffing,  and  investigating  with  special  attention  the 
embroidery  on  the  pillow-cases.  But  everything  was 
as  dainty  and  as  perfect  as  enthusiasm  could  make  it. 
Nowhere,  with  her  best  endeavours,  could  she  discover 
the  signs  she  was  looking  for  of  cheapness  and 
shabbiness  in  less  noticeable  things  that  would  have 
helped  her  to  understand  her  hostess.  "  This  em- 
broidery has  cost  at  least  two  marks  the  meter,"  she 
said  to  herself,  fingering  it.  "  She  must  roll  in  money. 
And  the  wall-paper — how  unpractical  !  It  is  so  light 
that  every  mark  will  be  seen.  The  flies  alone  will 
ruin  it  in  a  month." 


CHAP.  XV       THE  BENEFACTRESS  199 

She  shrugged  her  shoulders,  and  smiled  ;  strange 
to  say,  the  thought  of  Anna's  paper  being  spoiled 
pleased  her. 

Never  had  she  been  in  a  room  the  least  like  this 
one.  If  whitewash  prevailed  downstairs,  and  in 
Anna's  special  haunts,  it  had  not  been  permitted  to 
invade  the  bedrooms  of  the  Chosen.  Anna's  reflec- 
tions had  led  her  to  the  conclusion  that  the  lives  of 
these  ladies  had  till  then  probably  been  spent  in  bare 
places,  and  that  they  would  accordingly  feel  as  much 
pleasure  in  the  contemplation  of  carpets,  papered 
walls,  and  stuffed  chairs,  as  she  herself  did  in  the 
severity  of  her  whitewashed  rooms  after  the  lavishly 
upholstered  years  of  her  youth.  But  the  daintiness 
and  luxury  only  filled  the  baroness  with  doubts.  She 
stood  in  the  middle  of  it  looking  round  her  when  she 
had  finished  her  tour  of  inspection  and  had  made 
guesses  at  the  price  of  everything,  and  asked  herself 
who  this  Miss  Estcourt  could  be.  Anna  would 
have  been  considerably  disappointed,  and  perhaps 
even  moved  to  tears,  if  she  had  known  that  the  room 
she  thought  so  pretty  struck  the  baroness,  whose 
taste  in  furniture  had  not  advanced  beyond  an 
appreciation  for  the  dark  and  heavy  hangings  and 
walnut-wood  tables  of  her  more  prosperous  years, 
merely  as  odd.  Odd,  and  very  expensive.  Where 
did  the  money  come  from  for  this  reckless  furnishing 
with  stuffs  and  colours  that  were  bound  to  show  each 
stain  ?  Her  eye  wandered  along  the  shelves  above 
the  writing-table^ — hers  was  the  Heine  and  Maeter- 
linck room — and  she  wondered  what  all  the  books 
were  there  for.  She  did  not  touch  them  as  she  had 
touched  everything  else,  for  except  an  occasional 
novel,  and,  more  regularly,  a  journal  beloved  of 
German  woman  called  the  Garten laube,  she  never  read. 


200  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

On  the  writing-table  lay  a  blotter,  a  pretty,  em- 
broidered thing  that  said  as  plainly  as  blotter  could 
say  that  it  had  been  chosen  with  immense  care  ; 
and  opening  it  she  found  notepaper  and  envelopes 
stamped  with  the  Kleinwalde  address  and  her  own 
monogram.  This  was  Anna's  little  special  gift,  a 
childish  addition,  the  making  of  which  had  given 
her  an  absurd  amount  of  pleasure.  The  happy  idea, 
as  she  called  it,  had  come  to  her  one  night  when  she 
lay  awake  thinking  about  her  new  friends  and  going 
through  the  familiar  process  of  discovering  their 
tastes  by  imagining  herself  in  their  place.  "  Son- 
derhar^'  was  the  baroness's  comment ;  and  she 
decided  that  the  best  thing  she  could  do  would  be 
to  ring  the  bell  and  endeavour  to  obtain  private 
information  about  Miss  Estcourt  by  means  of  a 
prolonged  cross-examination  of  the  housemaid. 

She  rang  it,  and  then  sat  very  straight  and  still  on 
the  sofa  with  her  hands  folded  in  her  lap,  and  waited. 
Her  soul  was  full  of  doubts.  Who  was  this  Miss, 
and  where  were  the  proofs  that  she  was,  as  she  had 
pretended,  of  good  birth  ?  That  she  was  not  so 
very  pious  was  evident  ;  for  if  she  had  been,  some 
remark  of  a  religious  nature  would  inevitably  have 
been  forthcoming  when  she  first  welcomed  them  to 
her  house.  No  such  word,  not  the  least  approach  to 
any  such  word,  had  been  audible.  There  had  not 
even  been  an  allusion,  a  sigh,  or  an  upward  glance. 
Yet  the  pastor  who  had  opened  the  correspondence 
had  filled  many  pages  with  expatiations  on  her  zeal 
after  righteousness.  And  then  she  was  so  young. 
The  baroness  had  expected  to  see  an  elderly  person, 
or  at  least  a  person  of  the  age  of  everybody  else, 
which  was  her  own  age ;  but  this  was  a  mere  girl, 
and  a  girl,  too,  who,  from  the  way  she  dressed,  clearly 


XV  THE  BENEFACTRESS  201 

thought  herself  pretty.  Surely  it  was  strange  that 
so  young  a  woman  should  be  living  here  quite  un- 
attached, quite  independent  apparently  of  all  control, 
with  a  great  deal  of  money  at  her  disposal,  and  only 
one  little  girl  to  give  her  a  countenance  ?  Suppose 
she  were  not  a  proper  person  at  all,  suppose  she  were 
an  outcast  from  society,  a  being  on  whom  her  own 
countrypeople  turned  their  backs  ?  This  desire  to 
share  her  fortune  with  respectable  ladies  could  only 
be  explained  in  two  ways  :  either  she  had  been 
moved  thereto  by  an  enthusiastic  piety  of  which  not 
a  trace  had  as  yet  appeared,  or  she  was  an  improper 
person  anxious  to  rebuild  her  reputation  with  the  aid 
and  countenance  of  the  ladies  of  good  family  she  had 
entrapped  into  her  house. 

The  baroness  stiffened  as  she  sat.  It  was  her 
brother  who  had  cheated  at  cards  and  shot  himself, 
and  it  was  her  sister  of  whom  Axel  Lohm  had  heard 
strange  tales  ;  and  few  people  are  more  savagely 
proper  than  the  still  respectable  relations  of  the 
demoralised.  "  The  service  in  this  house  is  very 
bad,"  she  said  aloud  and  irascibly,  getting  up  to 
ring  again.  "  No  doubt  she  has  trouble  with  her 
servants." 

But  there  was  a  knock  at  the  door  while  her 
hand  was  on  the  bell,  and  on  her  calling  "  Come  in," 
instead  of  the  servant  her  hostess  appeared,  dressed 
to  the  baroness's  eye  in  a  truly  amazing  and  repre- 
hensible fashion,  and  looking  as  cheerful  as  an 
innocent  infant  for  whom  no  such  thing  as  evil- 
doing  exists.  Also  she  seemed  quite  unconscious 
of  her  clothes  and  bare  neck,  nor  did  she  offer  to 
explain  why  she  was  arrayed  as  though  she  were 
going  to  a  ball  ;  and  she  stood  a  moment  in  the 
doorway   trying   to   say  something   in   German   and 


202  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

pretending  to  laugh  at  her  own  ineffectual  efforts, 
but  really  laughing,  the  baroness  felt  sure,  in  order 
to  show  that  she  had  dimples  ;  which  were  not,  after 
all,  very  wonderful  things  to  have — before  she  had 
grown  so  thin  she  almost  had  one  herself. 

"  May  I  come  in  ? "  said  Anna  at  last,  giving  up 
the  other  and  more  complicated  speech. 

"  Bitte^'  said  the  baroness,  with  the  smile  the 
French  call  pince. 

"  Has  no  one  been  to  unpack  your  things  ^  " 

"  I  rang." 

"  And  no  one  came  ?  Oh,  I  shall  scold  Marie. 
It  is  the  only  thing  I  can  do  well  in  German.  Can 
you  speak  English  ^  " 

"No." 

"  Nor  understand  it  .'^  " 

-No." 

"French.?" 

"No." 

"  Oh,  well,  you  must  be  patient  then  with  my  bad 
German.  When  I  am  alone  with  any  one  it  goes 
better,  but  if  there  are  many  people  listening  I  am 
nervous  and  can  hardly  speak  at  all.  How  glad  1 
am  that  you  are  here !  " 

Anna's  shyness,  now  that  she  was  by  herself 
with  one  of  her  forlorn  ones,  had  vanished,  and  she 
prattled  happily  for  some  time,  putting  as  many 
mistakes  into  her  sentences  as  they  would  hold, 
before  she  became  aware  that  the  baroness's  replies 
were  monosyllabic,  and  that  she  was  examining  her 
from  head  to  foot  with  so  much  attention  that  there 
was  obviously  none  left  over  for  the  appreciation  of 
her  remarks. 

This  made  her  feel  shy  again.  Clothes  to  her 
were  such  secondary  considerations,  things  of  so  little 


XV  THE  BENEFACTRESS  203 

importance.  Susie  had  provided  them,  and  she  had 
put  them  on,  and  there  it  had  ended  ;  and  when  she 
found  that  it  was  her  dress  and  not  herself  that  was 
interesting  the  baroness,  she  longed  to  have  the 
courage  to  say,  "  Don't  waste  time  over  it  now — I'll 
send  it  to  your  room  to-night,  if  you  like,  and  you 
can  look  at  it  comfortably — only  don't  waste  time 
now,  I  want  to  talk  to  you,  to  you  who  have 
suffered  so  much  ;  I  want  to  make  friends  with  you 
quickly,  to  make  you  begin  to  be  happy  quickly  ;  so 
don't  let  us  waste  the  precious  time  thinking  of 
clothes."  But  she  had  neither  sufficient  courage  nor 
sufficient  German. 

She  put  out  her  hand  rather  timidly,  and  making 
an  effiDrt  to  bring  her  companion's  thoughts  back  to 
the  things  that  mattered,  said,  "  I  hope  you  will  Hke 
living  with  me.  I  hope  we  shall  be  very  happy 
together.  I  can't  tell  you  how  happy  it  makes  me 
to  think  that  you  are  safely  here,  and  that  you  are 
going  to  stay  with  me  always." 

The  baroness's  hands  were  clasped  in  front  of 
her,  and  they  did  not  unclasp  to  meet  Anna's  ;  but 
at  this  speech  she  left  off  eying  the  dress,  and  began 
to  ask  questions.  "You  are  very  lonely,  I  can  see," 
she  said  with  another  of  the  pinched  smiles.  "Have 
you  then  no  relations  ?  No  one  of  your  own  family 
who  will  live  with  you  ?  Will  not  your  Fraii  Mama 
come  to  Germany  .'* " 

"  My  mother  is  dead." 

"  Ach — mine  also.     And  the  Herr  Papa  ?  " 

"  He  is  dead." 

"  Ach — mine  also." 

"  I  know,  I  know,"  said  Anna,  stroking  the  un- 
responsive hands — a  trick  of  hers  when  she  wanted  to 
comfort  that  had  often  irritated  Susie.     "  You  told 


204  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

me  how  lonely  you  were  in  your  letters.  I  lived 
with  my  brother  and  his  wife  till  I  came  here.  You 
have  no  brothers  or  sisters,  I  think  you  wrote." 

"  None,"  said  the  baroness  with  a  rigid  look. 

"Well,  I  am  going  to  be  your  sister,  if  you  will 
let  me." 

"  You  are  very  good." 

"  Oh,  I  am  not  good,  only  so  happy — I  have 
everything  in  the  world  that  I  have  ever  wished  to 
have,  and  now  that  you  have  come  to  share  it  all 
there  is  nothing  more  I  can  think  of  that  I  want." 

"  Ach^'  said  the  baroness.  Then  she  added, 
"  Have  you  no  aunts,  or  cousins,  who  would  come 
and  stay  with  you  }  " 

"  Oh,  heaps.  But  they  are  all  well  off  and  quite 
pleased,  and  they  wouldn't  like  staying  here  with  me 
at  all." 

"  They  would  not  like  staying  with  you  .''  How 
strange." 

"Very  strange,"  laughed  Anna.  "You  see  they 
don't  know  how  pleasant  I  can  be  in  my  own  house." 

"  And  your  friends — they  too  will  not  come  .''  " 

"  I  don't  know  if  they  would  or  not.  I  didn't 
ask  them." 

"  You  have  no  one,  no  one  at  all  who  would 
come  and  live  with  you  so  that  you  should  not  be  so 
lonely  } " 

"  But  I  am  not  lonely,"  said  Anna,  looking  down 
at  the  little  woman  with  a  slightly  amused  expression, 
"  and  I  don't  in  the  least  want  to  be  lived  with." 

"  Then  why  do  you  wish  to  fill  your  house  with 
strangers  }  " 

"  Why  .^"  repeated  Anna,  a  puzzled  look  coming 
into  her  eyes.  Had  not  the  correspondence  with 
the  ultimately  chosen  been  long  .''     And  were  not  all 


XV  THE  BENEFACTRESS  205 

her  reasons  duly  set  forth  therein  ?  "Why,  because 
I  want  you  to  have  some  of  my  nice  things  too." 

"  But  not  your  own  friends  and  relations  ? " 

"They  have  everything  they  want." 

There  was  a  silence.  Anna  left  off  stroking  the 
baroness's  hands.  She  was  thinking  that  this  was  a 
queer  little  person  —  outside,  that  is.  Inside,  of 
course,  she  was  very  different,  poor  little  lonely 
thing  ;  but  her  outer  crust  seemed  thick  ;  and  she 
wondered  how  long  it  would  take  her  to  get  through 
it  to  the  soul  that  she  was  sure  was  sweet  and  lovable. 
She  was  also  unable  to  repress  a  conviction  that  most 
people  would  call  these  questions  rude. 

But  this  train  of  thought  was  not  one  to  be 
encouraged.  "  I  am  keeping  you  here  talking,"  she 
said,  resuming  her  first  cheerfulness,  "  and  your 
things  are  not  unpacked  yet.  I  shall  go  and  scold 
Marie  for  not  coming  when  you  rang,  and  I'll  send 
her  to  you."  And  she  went  out  quickly,  vexed 
with  herself  for  feeling  chilled,  and  left  the  baroness 
more  full  of  doubts  than  ever. 

When  she  had  rebuked  Marie,  who  looked  gloomy, 
she  tapped  at  Frau  von  Treumann's  door.  No  one 
answered.  She  knocked  again.  No  one  answered. 
Then  she  opened  the  door  softly  and  looked  in. 

These  were  precious  moments,  she  felt,  these  first 
moments  of  being  alone  with  each  of  her  new  friends, 
precious  opportunities  for  breaking  ice.  It  is  true 
she  had  not  been  able  to  break  much  of  the  ice 
encasing  the  baroness,  but  she  was  determined  not 
to  be  cast  down  by  any  of  the  little  difficulties  she 
was  sure  to  encounter  at  first,  and  she  looked  into 
Frau  von  Treumann's  room  with  fresh  hope  in  her 
heart. 

W^hat,   then,   was   her   dismay  to   find   that   lady 


2o6  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chaf. 

walking     up    and    down    with    the    long    strides    of 
extreme  excitement,  her  face  bathed  in  tears. 

"  Oh — what's  the  matter  ?  "  gasped  Anna,  shutting 
the  door  quickly  and  hurrying  in. 

Frau  von  Treumann  had  not  heard  the  gentle 
taps,  and  when  she  saw  her,  started,  and  tried  to  hide 
her  face  in  her  handkerchief. 

"  Tell  me  what  is  the  matter,"  begged  Anna,  her 
voice  full  of  tenderness. 

"  Nichts^  nichis,'"  was  the  hasty  reply.  "  I  did 
not  hear  you  knock ' 

"  Tell  me  what  is  the  matter,"  begged  Anna 
again,  fairly  putting  her  arms  round  the  poor  lady. 
"  Our  letters  have  said  so  much  already — surely  there 
is  nothing  you  cannot  tell  me  now  }  And  if  I  can 
help  you " 

Frau  von  Treumann  freeei  herself  by  a  hasty 
movement,  and  began  to  walk  up  and  down  again. 
"  No,  no,  you  can  do  nothing — you  can  do  nothing," 
she  said,  and  wept  as  she  walked. 

Anna  watched  her  in  consternation. 

"  See  to  what  I  have  come — see  to  what  I  have 
come  !  "  said  the  agitated  lady  under  her  breath  but 
with  passionate  intensity,  as  she  passed  and  repassed 
her  dismayed  hostess  ;  "  oh,  to  have  fallen  so  low  ! 
oh,  to  have  fallen  so  low  !  " 

"So  low.^  "  echoed  Anna,  greatly  concerned. 

"At  my  age  —  I,  a  Treumann  —  I,  a  geborene 
Grafin  Ilmas-Kadenstein — to  live  on  charity — to  be 
a  member  of  a  charitable  institution  !  " 

"  Institution  ^  Charity  ^  Oh  no,  no  !  "  cried 
Anna.  "  It  is  a  home  here,  and  there  is  no  charity 
in  it  from  the  attic  to  the  cellar."  And  she  went 
towards  her  with  outstretched  hands. 

"  A   home  !      Yes,   that   is   it,"   cried    Frau   von 


XV  THE  BENEFACTRESS  207 

Treumaiin,    waving    her    back,    "  it    is    a    home,    a 
charitable  home  !  " 

"  No,  not  a  home  like  that — a  real  home,  my 
home,  your  home — ein  lieim^'  Anna  protested  ;  but 
vainly,  because  the  German  word  llei7n  and  the 
Enghsh  word  home  have  little  meaning  in  common. 

"  Ein  Heim,  ein  Ueim^'  repeated  Frau  von  Treu- 
mann  with  extraordinary  bitterness,  "  ein  Frauenheim 
— yes,  that  is  what  it  is,  and  everybody  knows  it." 

"  Everybody  knows  it }  " 

"  How  could  I  think,"  she  said,  wringing  her 
hands, — "  how  could  I  think  when  I  decided  to  come 
here  that  the  whole  world  was  to  be  made  acquainted 
with  your  plans  ?  I  thought  they  were  to  be  kept 
private,  that  the  world  was  to  think  we  were  your 
friends " 

"  And  so  you  are." 
-your  guests- 


"  Oh,  more  than  guests — this  is  home." 

"  Home  !       Home  !       Always   that    word " 

And  she  burst  into  a  fresh  torrent  of  tears. 

Anna  stood  helpless.  What  she  said  appeared 
ordy  to  aggravate  Frau  von  Treumann's  sorrow  and 
rage — for  surely  there  was  anger  as  well  as  sorrow  ? 
She  was  at  a  complete  loss  for  the  reason  of  this  out- 
burst. Had  not  every  detail  been  discussed  in  the 
correspondence  .''  Had  not  that  correspondence  been 
exhaustive  even  to  boredom  ? 

"  You  have  told  your  servants " 

"  My  servants.^  " 

*'  You  have  told  them  that  we  are  objects  of 
charity " 

"  I "  began  Anna,  and  then  was  silent. 

*'  It  is  not  true — I  have  come  here  trom  very 
different  motives — but  they  think  me  an  object  of 


2o8  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

charity.  I  rang  the  bell  —  I  cannot  unstrap  my 
trunks  —  I  never  have  been  expected  to  unstrap 
trunks."  The  sobs  here  interfered  for  a  moment 
with  further  speech.  "After  a  long  while  —  your 
servant  came  —  she  was  insolent  —  the  trunks  are 
there  still  unstrapped — you  see  them — she  knows — 
everything." 

"She  shall  go  to-morrow." 

"The  others  think  the  same  thing." 

"  They  shall  go  to-morrow — that  is,  have  they 
been  rude  to  you  ?  " 

"  Not  yet,  but  they  will  be." 

"  When  they  are,  they  shall  go." 

"  I  went  into  the  corridor  to  seek  other  assist- 
ance, and  I  met — I  met " 

"Who.?" 

"  Oh,  to  have  fallen  so  low  !  "  cried  Frau  von 
Treumann,  clasping  her  hands,  and  raising  her 
streaming  eyes  to  the  ceiling. 

"  But  who  did  you  meet .''  " 

"  I  met — I  met  the  Penheim." 

"  The  Penheim  ?  Do  you  mean  Princess 
Ludwig  ? " 

"  You  never  said  she  was  here " 

"  I  did  not  know  that  it  would  interest  you." 

"  — living  on  charity — she  was  always  shameless — I 
was  at  school  with  her.  Oh,  I  would  not  have  come 
for  any  inducement  if  I  had  known  she  was  here  ! 
She  holds  nothing  sacred,  she  will  boast  of  her  own 
degradation,  she  will  write  to  all  her  friends  that  I 
am  here  too — I  told  them  I  was  coming  only  on  a 
visit  to  you — they  knew  I  knew  your  uncle — but  the 

Penheim — -the  Penheim "  and  Frau  von  Treumann 

threw  herself  into  a  chair  and  covered  her  face  with 
her  hands  to  shut  out  the  horrid  vision. 


XV  THE  BENEFACTRESS  209 

The  corners  of  Anna's  mouth  began  to  take  the 
upward  direction  that  would  end  in  a  smile  ;  and 
feeling  how  ill-placed  such  a  contortion  would  be  in 
the  presence  of  this  tumultuous  grief,  she  brought 
them  carefully  back  to  a  position  of  proper  solemnity. 
Besides,  why  should  she  smile  ?  The  poor  lady  was 
clearly  desperately  unhappy  about  something,  though 
what  it  was  Anna  did  not  quite  know.  She  had 
looked  forward  to  this  first  evening  with  her  new 
friends  as  to  a  thing  apart,  a  thing  beyond  the 
ordinary  experience  of  life,  profound  in  its  peace, 
perfect  in  its  harmony,  the  first  taste  of  rest  after 
war,  of  port  after  stormy  seas  ;  and  here  was  Frau 
von  Treumann  plunged  in  a  very  audible  grief,  and 
in  the  next  room  was  the  baroness,  a  disconcerting 
combination  of  inquisitiveness  and  ice,  and  farther 
down  the  passage  was  Fraulein  Kuhriiuber — ^in  what 
state,  Anna  wondered,  would  she  find  Friiulein 
Kuhrauber  ?  Anyhow  she  had  little  reason  to  smile. 
But  the  horror  with  which  Princess  Ludwig  had 
been  mentioned  seemed  droll  beside  her  own  know- 
ledge of  the  sterling  qualities  of  that  excellent  woman. 
She  went  over  to  the  chair  in  which  Frau  von  Treu- 
mann lay  prostrate,  and  sat  down  beside  her.  She 
was  glad  that  they  had  reached  the  stage  of  sitting 
down,  for  talking  is  difficult  to  a  person  who  will 
not  keep  still. 

"How  sorry  I  am,"  she  said,  in  her  pretty,  hesi- 
tating German,  "  that  you  should  have  been  made 
unhappy  the  very  first  evening.  Marie  is  a  little 
wretch.  Don't  let  her  stupidity  make  you  miserable. 
You  shall  not  see  her  again,  I  promise  you."  And 
she  patted  Frau  von  Treumann's  arm,  "  But  about 
Princess  Ludwig,  now,"  she  went  on  cheerfully  ;  "  she 
has   been   here  some  weeks   and   you  soon   learn   to 

p 


2IO  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

know  a  person  you  are  with  every  day,  and  really  I 
have  found  her  nothing  but  good  and  kind." 

"  Ach^  she  is  shameless — she  recoils  before  no 
degradation  !  "  burst  out  Frau  von  Treumann,  sud- 
denly removing  her  hands  from  her  face.  "  The 
trouble  she  has  given  her  relations  !  She  delights  in 
dragging  her  name  in  the  dirt.  She  has  tried  to  get 
places  in  the  most  impossible  fimilies,  and  made 
no  attempt  to  hide  what  she  was  doing.  She  has 
broken  the  old  Fiirst's  heart.  And  she  talks  about  it 
all,  and  has  no  shame,  no  decency " 

"  But  is  it  not  admirable "  began  Anna. 

"  She  will  gloat  over  me,  and  tell  every  one  that  I 
am  here  in  the  same  way  as  she  is.  If  she  is  not 
ashamed  for  herself,  do  you  think  she  will  spare 
me  : 

"  But  why  should  you  think  there  is  anything  to 
be  ashamed  of  in  coming  to  live  with  me  and  be  my 
dear  friend.^  " 

"  No,  there  is  nothing,  so  long  as  my  motives  in 
coming  are  known.  But  people  talk  so  cruelly,  and 
will  distort  the  facts  so  gladly,  and  we  have  always 
held  our  heads  so  high.  And  now  the  Penheim !  " 
She  sobbed  afresh. 

"  I  shall  ask  the  princess  not  to  write  to  any  one 
about  your  being  here." 

"  Ach^  I  know  her — she  will  do  it  all  the  same." 

"  No,  I  don't  think  so.  She  does  everything  I 
ask.  You  see,  she  takes  care  of  my  house  for  me. 
She  is  not  here  in  the  same  way  that — that  you  and 
Baroness  Elmreich  are,  and  her  interest  is  to  stay 
here." 

Frau  von  Treumann's  bowed  head  went  up  with 
a  jerk.  '•'■  Ach'i  She  has  found  a  place  at  last.^ 
She  is  your  paid  companion }     Your  housekeeper  '^.  " 


XV  THE  BENEFACTRESS  211 

"  Yes,  and  she  is  goodness  itself,  and  I  don't 
believe  she  would  be  unkind  and  make  mischief  for 
worlds." 

'■'■  Ach  so!''  said  Frau  von  Treumann,  '■'■  ach 
s 0-0-0-0- !  " — a  long  drawn  out  so  of  complete  com- 
prehension. Her  tears  ceased  as  if  by  magic.  She 
dried  her  eyes.  Yes,  of  course  the  Penheim  would 
hold  her  tongue  if  Miss  Estcourt  ordered  her  to  do 
so.  She  had  heard  all  about  her  efforts  to  find  places, 
and  she  would  probably  be  very  careful  not  to  lose 
this  one.  The  poor  Penheim,  So  she  was  actually 
working  for  wages.  What  a  come-down  for  a 
Dettingen  !  And  the  Dettingens  had  always  treated 
the  Treumanns  as  though  they  belonged  merely  to 
the  kleifie  Adel.  Well,  well,  each  one  in  turn.  She 
was  the  dear  friend,  and  the  Penheim  was  the  house- 
keeper.    Well,  well. 

She  sat  up  straight,  smoothed  her  hair,  and  re- 
sumed her  first  manner  of  quiet  dignity.  "  I  am 
sorry  that  you  should  have  witnessed  my  agitation," 
she  said,  with  a  faint  smile.  "  I  am  not  easily  be- 
trayed into  exhibitions  of  feeling,  but  there  are  limits 
to  one's  endurance,  there  are  certain  things  the  bravest 
cannot  bear." 

"  Yes,"  said  Anna. 

"  And  for  a  Treumann,  social  disgrace,  any  action 
that  in  the  least  soils  our  honour  and  makes  us  unable 
to  hold  up  our  heads,  is  worse  than  death." 

"  But  I  don't  see  any  disgrace." 

"•  No,  no,  there  is  none  so  long  as  facts  are  not 
distorted.  It  is  quite  simple — you  need  friends,  and 
I  am  willing  to  be  your  friend.  That  was  how  my 
son  looked  at  it.  He  said  '  Liebe  Mama^  she  evi- 
dently needs  friends  and  sympathy — why  should  you 
hesitate  to  make  yourself  of  use  }     You  must  regard 


212  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

it  as  a  good  work.'  You  would  like  my  son  ;  his 
brother  officers  adore  him," 

"  Really  ?"  said  Amia. 

"  He  is  so  sensible,  so  reasonable  ;  he  is  beloved 
and  respected  by  the  whole  regimeiit.  I  will  show 
you  his  photograph — ach^  the  trunks  are  still  un- 
strapped." 

"  I'll  go  and  send  some  one — but  not  Marie,"  said 
Anna,  getting  up  quickly.  She  had  no  desire  to  see 
the  photograph,  and  the  son's  way  of  looking  at 
things  had  considerably  astonished  her.  "  It  must 
be  nearly  supper-time.  Would  you  not  rather  lie 
down  and  let  me  send  you  something  here .?  Your 
head  must  ache  after  crying  so  much.  You  have 
baptized  our  new  life  with  tears.  I  hope  it  is  a  good 
omen." 

"  Oh,  I  will  come  down.  You  will  do  as  you 
promised,  will  you  not,  and  forbid  the  Penheim  to 
gossip  V 

"  I  shall  tell  the  princess  your  wishes." 

"Or,  if  she  must  gossip,  let  her  tell  the  truth  at 
least.  If  my  son  had  not  pressed  me  to  come  here  I 
really  do  not  think " 

Anna  went  slowly  and  meditatively  down  the 
passage  to  Fraulein  Kuhrauber's  room.  For  a 
moment  she  thought  of  omitting  this  last  visit  alto- 
gether ;  she  was  afraid  lest  the  Fraulein  should  be 
in  some  unlooked-for  and  perplexing  condition  of 
mind.  Discouraged.'^  Oh  no  ;  she  was  surely  not 
discouraged  already.  How  had  the  word  come  into 
her  head  ?  She  quickened  her  steps.  When  she 
reached  the  door  she  remembered  the  cup  and  the 
sugar-tongs.  Perhaps  something  in  the  bedroom 
was  already  broken,  and  the  Fraulein  would  be  dis- 
closed sitting  in  the  ruins  in  tears,  for  she  was  un- 


XV  THE  BENEFACTRESS  213 

expected! y  large,  and  the  contents  of  her  room  were 
frail.  But  then  woe  of  that  sort  was  as  easily  assuaged 
as  broken  furniture  was  mended.  It  was  the  more 
complicated  grief  of  Frau  von  Treumann  that  she 
felt  unable  to  soothe.  As  to  that,  she  preferred 
not  to  think  about  it  at  present,  and  barricaded  her 
thoughts  against  its  image  with  that  consoling  sentence 
Tout  comprendre  c' est  tout pardonner.  It  was  a  sentence, 
she  was  fond  of ;  but  she  had  not  expected  that  she 
would  need  its  reassurance  so  soon. 

She  opened  the  door,  and  the  puckers  smoothed 
themselves  out  of  her  forehead  at  once,  for  here,  at 
last,  was  peace.  There  had  been  no  difficulties  here 
with  bells,  and  straps,  and  Marie.  The  trunks  had 
been  opened  and  unpacked  without  assistance  ;  and 
when  Anna  came  in  the  contents  were  all  put  away  and 
Fraulein  Kuhrauber,  washed  and  combed  and  in  her 
Sunday  blouse,  was  sitting  in  an  easy  chair  by  the 
window  absorbed  in  a  book.  Satisfaction  was  written 
broadly  on  her  face  ;  content  was  expressed  by  every 
lazy  line  of  her  attitude.  When  she  saw  Anna,  she 
got  up  and  made  a  curtsey  and  beamed.  The  beams 
were  instantly  reflected  in  Anna's  face,  and  they 
beamed  at  each  other. 

"Well.''"  said  Anna,  who  felt  perfectly  at  her 
ease  with  this  member  of  her  trio,  "  Are  you 
happy  V 

Fraulein  Kuhrauber  blushed,  and  beamed  more 
than  ever.  She  was  far  less  shy  of  Anna  than  she 
was  of  those  two  terrible  adelige  Damen^  her  travelling 
companions  ;  but  at  no  time  had  she  had  much  con- 
versation. Hers  had  been  a  ruminative  existence,  for 
its  uncertainty  but  rarely  disturbed  her.  Had  she 
not  an  excellent  digestion,  and  a  fixed  behef  that  the 
righteous,  of  whom  she  was  one,  would  never  be  for- 


214  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

saken  r  And  are  not  these  the  primary  conditions 
of  happiness  ?  Indeed,  if  everything  else  is  wanting, 
these  two  ingredients  by  themselves  are  sufficient  for 
the  concoction  of  a  very  palatable  life. 

"  You  have  found  an  interesting  book  already  ?  " 
Anna  asked,  pleased  that  the  literature  chosen  with 
such  care  should  have  met  with  instant  appreciation. 
She  took  it  up  to  see  what  it  was,  but  put  it  down 
again  hastily,  for  it  was  the  cookery  book. 

"  I  read  much,"  observed  Friiulein  Kuhrauber. 

"Yes.''"  said  Anna,  a  flicker  of  hope  reviving 
in  her  heart.  Perhaps  the  cookery  book  was  an 
accident. 

"  I  know  by  heart  more  than  a  hundred  recipes 
for  sweet  dishes  alone." 

"  Really  .''"  said  Anna,  the  flicker  expiring. 

"  So  you  can  have  an  idea  of  the  number  of  books 
I  have  read." 

"  Here  are  a  great  many  more  for  you  to  read." 

"  Achja^  ach  ja^'  said  Friiulein  Kuhrauber,  glanc- 
ing doubtfully  at  the  shelves  ;  "  but  one  must  not 
waste  too  much  time  over  it — there  are  other  things 
in  life.      I  read  only  useful  books." 

"  Well,  that  is  very  praiseworthy,"  said  Anna, 
smiling.  "  If  you  like  cookery  books  I  must  get  you 
some  more." 

"  How  good  you  are — how  very,  very  good  ! " 
said  the  Fraulein,  gazing  at  the  charming  figure 
before  her  with  heartfelt  admiration  and  gratitude. 
"  This  beautiful  room — I  cannot  look  at  it  enough. 
I  cannot  believe  it  is  really  for  me — for  me  to  sleep 
in  and  be  in  whenever  I  choose.  What  have  I  done 
to  deserve  all  this  ?" 

What  had  she  done,  indeed }  She  had  not  even 
been  unhappy,  although  of  course  she  had  had  every 


XV  THE  BENEFACTRESS  215 

opportunity  of  being  so,  sent  from  place  to  place, 
from  one  indignant  Hausfrau  to  another,  ever  since 
she  left  school.  But  Anna,  persuaded  that  she  had 
rescued  her  from  depths  of  unspeakable  despair,  was 
overjoyed  by  this  speech.  "  Don't  talk  about  deserv- 
ing," she  said  tenderly".  "  You  have  had  such  a  life 
that  if  you  were  to  be  happy  now  without  stopping 
once  for  the  next  fifty  years  it  would  onlv  be  just  and 
right." 

Fraulein  Kuhrauber's  approval  of  this  sentiment 
was  so  entire  that  she  seized  Anna's  hand  and  kissed 
it  fervently.  Anna  laughed  while  this  was  going  on, 
and  her  eyes  grew  brighter.  She  had  not  wanted 
gratitude,  but  now  that  it  had  come  it  was  very 
encouraging  after  all,  and  very  warming.  She  put 
one  arm  impulsively  round  the  Fraulein's  neck  and 
kissed  her  ;  and  this  was  practically  the  first  kiss  that 
lady  had  ever  received,  for  the  perfunctory  embraces 
of  reluctantly  dutiful  aunts  can  hardly  be  called 
by  that  pretty  name. 

"  Now,"  said  Anna,  with  a  happy  laugh,  "  we  are 
going  to  be  friends  for  ever.  Come,  let  us  go  down. 
That  was  the  supper  bell." 

And  they  went  downstairs  together,  appearing  in 
the  doorway  of  the  drawing-room  arm  in  arm,  as 
though  they  had  loved  each  other  for  years. 

"  As  though  they  were  twins,"  muttered  the 
baroness  to  Frau  von  Treumann,  who  shrugged  one 
shoulder  slightly  by  way  of  reply. 


CHAPTER   XVI 

But  in  spite  of  this  little  outburst  of  gratitude  and 
appreciation  from  Fraulein  Kuhriiuber,  the  first  even- 
ing of  the  new  life  was  a  disappointment.  The 
Fraulein,  who  entered  the  room  so  happily  under  the 
impression  of  that  recent  kiss,  became  awkward  and 
uncomfortable  the  moment  she  caught  sight  of  the 
others  ;  lapsing,  indeed,  into  a  quite  pitiful  state 
of  nervous  flutter  on  being  brought  for  the  first 
time  within  the  range  of  the  princess's  critical 
and  unsympathetic  eye.  Her  experience  had  not 
included  princesses,  and,  as  she  made  a  series  of 
agitated  curtseys,  deeming  one  altogether  insufH- 
cient  for  so  great  a  lady,  she  felt  as  though  that 
cold  eye  were  piercing  her  through  easily,  and  had 
already  discovered  the  inmost  recess  of  her  soul, 
where  lay,  so  carefully  hidden,  the  memory  of  the 
postman.  Every  time  the  princess  looked  at  her,  a 
sudden  vivid  consciousness  of  the  postman  flamed  up 
within  her,  utterly  refusing  to  be  extinguished  by  the 
soothing  recollection  that  he  had  been  angelic  for 
thirty  years.  That  obviously  experienced  eye  and 
those  pursed  lips  upset  her  so  completely  that  she 
made  no  remark  whatever  during  the  meal  that 
followed,  but  sat  next  to  Anna  and  ate  Leherwurst 
in  a  kind  of  uneasy  dream  ;   and  she  ate  it  with  a 


CHAP.  XVI      THE  BENEFACTRESS  217 

degree  of  emphasis  so  unusual  among  the  poHte  and 
so  disastrous  to  the  peace  of  the  ultra-fastidious,  that 
Anna  felt  there  really  was  some  slight  excuse  for 
the  frequent  and  lengthy  stares  that  came  from  the 
other  end  of  the  table.  "  Yet  she  is  an  immortal 
soul — what  does  it  matter  how  she  eats  Leberwursi  ?" 
said  Anna  to  herself  "  What  do  such  trifles,  such 
little  mannerisms,  really  matter?  I  should  indeed  be 
a  miserable  creature  if  I  let  them  annoy  me."  But 
she  turned  her  head  away,  nevertheless,  and  talked 
assiduously  to  Letty. 

There  was  no  one  else  for  her  to  talk  to.  Frau 
von  Treumann  and  the  baroness  had  seated  them- 
selves at  once  one  on  either  side  of  the  princess,  and 
devoted  their  conversation  entirely  to  her.  In  the 
drawing-room  later  on  the  same  thing  happened  ;  the 
three  German  ladies  clustering  together  near  the  sofa, 
and  the  three  English  being  left  somehow  to  them- 
selves, except  for  Fraulein  Kuhrauber,  who  clung  to 
them.  To  avoid  this  division  into  what  looked  like 
hostile  camps  Anna  pushed  her  chair  to  a  place 
midway  between  the  groups,  and  tried  to  join, 
though  not  very  successfully,  in  the  talk  of  each 
in  turn.  Outward  calm  prevailed  in  the  room, 
subdued  voices,  the  tranquillity  of  fancy-work,  and 
the  peace  of  albums  ;  yet  Anna  could  not  avoid  a 
chilled  impression,  a  feeling  as  though  each  person 
present  were  distrustful  of  the  others,  and  more  or 
less  on  the  defensive.  Frau  von  Treumann,  it  is 
true,  was  graciousness  itself  to  the  princess,  con- 
versing with  her  constantly  and  amiably,  and  show- 
ing herself  kind  ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  princess 
was  hardly  gracious  to  Frau  von  Treumann.  An 
unbiassed  observer  would  have  said  that  she  dis- 
approved of  Frau  von  Treumann,  but  was  endeavour- 


2i8  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

ing  to  conceal  her  disapproval.  She  busied  herself 
with  her  embroidery  and  talked  as  little  as  she  could, 
receiving  both  the  advances  of  Frau  von  Treumann 
and  the  attentions  of  the  baroness  with  equal 
coldness. 

As  for  the  baroness,  her  doubts  as  to  Anna's 
respectability  were  blown  away  completely  and  for 
ever  when,  on  opening  the  drawing-room  door  before 
supper,  she  had  beheld  no  less  a  person  than  the 
geborene  Dettingen  seated  on  the  sofa.  The  baroness 
had  spent  her  life  in  a  remote  and  tiny  provincial 
town,  but  she  knew  the  great  Dettingen  and  Penheim 
families  well  by  name,  and  a  princess  in  her  opinion 
was  a  princess,  an  altogether  precious  and  admirable 
creature,  whatever  she  might  choose  to  do.  Her 
scruples,  then,  were  set  at  rest,  but  her  ice  as  far  as 
Anna  was  concerned  showed  no  signs  of  thawing. 
All  her  amiability  and  her  efforts  to  produce  a 
good  impression  were  lavished  on  the  princess,  who 
besides  being  by  birth  and  marriage  the  grandest 
person  the  baroness  had  yet  met,  spoke  her  own 
tongue  properly,  had  no  dimples,  and  did  not  try 
to  stroke  her  hand.  She  looked  on  with  mingled 
awe  and  irritation  at  the  easy  manner  in  which  Frau 
von  Treumann  treated  this  great  lady.  It  almost 
seemed  as  though  she  were  patronising  her.  Really 
these  Treumanns  were  a  brazen-faced  race ;  audacious 
East  Prussian  Junkers,  who  thought  themselves  as 
good  as  or  better  than  the  best.  And  this  one  was 
not  even  a  true  Treumann,  but  an  Ilmas,  and  of  the 
inferior  Kadenstein  branch ;  and  the  baroness's 
brother — that  brother  whose  end  was  so  abrupt — 
had  been  quartered  once  during  the  manoeuvres  at 
Kadenstein,  and  had  told  her  that  it  was  a  wretched 
place,  with  a  fowl-run  that  wanted  mending  within  a 


xvr  THE  BENEFACTRESS  219 

few  yards  of  the  front  door,  and  that,  the  door 
standing  open  all  day  long,  he  had  frequently  met 
fowls  walking  about  in  the  hall  and  passages.  Yet 
remembering  the  brother's  story,  and  how  there  was 
no  shadow  of  the  sort  resting  at  present  on  Frau  von 
Treumann,  though  as  she  had  a  son  there  was  no 
telling  how  long  her  shadowless  state  would  last,  she 
tried  to  ingratiate  herself  with  that  lady,  who  met 
her  advances  coolly,  only  warming  into  something 
like  responsiveness  when  Fraulein  Kuhrauber  was  in 
question. 

Fraulein  Kuhrauber  sat  behind  Letty  and  Miss 
Leech,  as  far  away  from  the  others  as  she  could. 
She  had  a  stocking  in  her  hand,  but  she  did  not 
knit.  She  never  knitted  if  she  could  avoid  it,  and 
was  conscious  that  from  want  of  practice  her  needles 
moved  more  slowly  than  is  usual — so  slowly,  indeed, 
as  to  be  conspicuous.  Letty  showed  her  photographs 
and  was  very  kind  to  her,  instinctively  perceiving 
that  here  was  some  one  who  was  as  uneasy  under 
the  tall  lady's  stares  as  she  was  herself.  She  privately 
thought  her  by  far  the  best  of  the  new  arrivals,  and 
wished  she  knew  enough  German  to  inquire  into  her 
views  respecting  Schiller  ;  there  was  something  in 
the  Fraulein's  looks  and  manner  that  made  her  think 
they  would  agree  about  Schiller. 

Anna,  too,  ended  by  talking  exclusively  to  this 
group.  Her  attempts  to  join  in  what  the  others 
were  saying  had  been  unsuccessful  ;  and  with  a  little 
twinge  of  disappointment,  and  a  feeling  of  being  for 
some  unexplained  reason  curiously  out  of  it,  she 
turned  to  Fraulein  Kuhrauber,  and  devoted  herself 
more  and  more  to  her. 

"  They  are  inseparables  already,"  remarked  the 
baroness   in   a  low   voice   to    Frau   von   Treumann. 


220  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

"  The  Miss  finds  her  congenial  it  seems,"  She  could 
not  forgrive  those  doors  she  had  gone  through  last. 

The  princess  looked  up  for  a  moment  over  the 
spectacles  she  wore  when  she  worked,  at  Anna. 

"  Fraulein  Kuhrauber  makes  an  excellent  foil," 
said  Frau  von  Treumann.  "  Miss  Estcourt  looks 
quite  ethereal  next  to  her." 

"  Do  you  think  her  pretty  ? "  asked  the  baroness. 

"She  is  very  distinguished-looking." 

A  servant  came  in  at  that  moment  and  announced 
Dellwig's  usual  evening  visit,  and  Anna  got  up  and 
went  out.  They  watched  her  as  she  walked  down 
the  long  room,  and  when  she  had  disappeared  began 
to  discuss  her  more  at  their  ease,  their  rapid  German 
being  quite  incomprehensible  to  Letty  and  Miss 
Leech. 

"  Where  has  she  gone  }  "  asked  the  baroness. 

"She  has  gone  to  talk  to  her  inspector,"  said  the 
princess. 

"  y^ch  so,''  said  the  baroness. 

"  y^ch  so,''  said  Frau  von  Treumann. 

"  Is  the  inspector  young  ^ "  asked  the  baroness. 

"  Oh  no,  quite  old,"  said  the  princess. 

"  These  English  are  a  strange  race,"  said  Frau 
von  Treumann.  "  What  German  girl  of  that  age 
would  you  find  with  so  much  energy  and  enterprise.^" 

"Is  she  so  very  young .^  "  inquired  the  baroness, 
with  a  look  of  mild  surprise. 

"  Why,  she  is  plainly  little  more  than  a  child," 
said  Frau  von  Treumann. 

"She  is  twenty-five,"  said  the  princess. 

"  Rather  an  old  child,"  observed  the  baroness. 

"She  looks  much  younger.  But  twenty-five  is 
surely  young  enough  for  this  life,  away  from  her  own 
people,"  said  Frau  von  Treumann. 


XVI  THE  BENEFACTRESS  221 

"  Yes- — why  does  she  lead  it?  "  asked  the  baroness 
eagerly.  "  Can  you  tell  us,  Frau  Prinzessin  ?  Has 
she  then  quarrelled  with  all  her  friends?  " 

"  Miss  Estcourt  has  not  told  me  so." 

"But  she  must  have  quarrelled.  Eccentric  as  the 
English  are,  there  are  limits  to  th;;ir  eccentricity,  and 
no  one  leaves  home  and  friends  and  country  without 
some  good  reason."  And  Frau  von  Treumann  shook 
her  head. 

"  She  has  quarrelled,  I  am  sure,"  said  the  baroness. 

"■  I  think  so  too,"  said  Frau  von  Treumann  ;  "  I 
thought  so  from  the  first.  My  son  also  thought  so. 
You  remember  Karlchen,  princess  ?  " 

"  Perfectly." 

"  I  discussed  the  question  thoroughly  with  him,  of 
course,  as  to  whether  I  should  come  here  or  not.  I 
confess  I  did  not  want  to  come.  It  was  a  great 
wrench,  giving  up  everything,  and  going  so  far  from 
my  son.  But  after  all  one  must  not  be  selfish." 
And  Frau  von  Treumann  sighed  and  paused. 

No  one  said  anything,  so  she  continued,  "  One 
feels,  as  one  grows  older,  how  great  are  the  claims  of 
others.  And  a  widow  with  only  one  son  can  do  so 
much — can  make  herself  of  so  much  use.  That  is 
what  Karlchen  said.  When  I  hesitated — for  I  fear 
one  does  hesitate  before  inconvenience  —  he  said 
'■Liebste  Mama^  it  would  be  a  charity  to  go  to  the 
poor  young  lady.  You  who  have  always  been  the 
first  to  extend  a  sympathetic  hand  to  the  friendless, 
how  is  it  that  you  hesitate  now  ?  Depend  upon  it, 
she  has  had  differences  at  home  and  needs  counte- 
nance and  help.  You  have  no  encumbrances.  You 
can  go  more  easily  than  others.  You  must  regard 
it  as  a  good  work.'     And  that  decided  me." 

The  princess  let  her  work  drop  for  a  moment  into 


222  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

her  lap,  and  gazed  over  her  spectacles  at  Frau  von 
Treumann.  "  Wirklich  ?  "  she  said  in  a  voice  of 
deep  interest,  "  Those  were  your  reasons  ?  Aber 
herrlichy 

"Yes,  those  were  my  reasons,"  replied  Frau  von 
Treumann,  returning  her  gaze  with  pensive  but 
steady  eyes.  "  Those  were  my  chief  reasons.  I 
regard  it  as  a  work  of  charity," 

"  But  this  is  noble,"  murmured  the  princess, 
resuming  her  work. 

"  That  is  how  /  have  regarded  it,"  put  in  the 
baroness.  "  I  agree  with  you  entirely,  dear  Frau  von 
Treumann." 

"  I  do  not  pretend  to  disguise,"  went  on  Frau  von 
Treumann,  "  that  it  is  an  economy  for  me  to  live 
here,  but  poor  as  I  have  been  since  my  dear  husband's 
death — you  remember  Karl,  princess  ?  " 

"  Perfectly." 

"  Poor  as  I  have  been,  I  always  had  sufficient  for 
my  simple  wants,  and  should  not  have  dreamed  of 
altering  my  life  if  Miss  Estcourt's  letters  had  not 
been  so  appealing." 

"  Ach — they  were  appealing  ^  " 

"  Oh,  a  heart  of  stone  would  have  been  melted  by 
them.  And  a  widow's  heart  is  not  of  stone,  as  you 
must  know  yourself.  The  orphan  appealing  to  the 
widow — it  was  irresistible." 

"  Well,  you  see  she  is  not  by  any  means  alone," 
said  the  princess  cheerfully.  "  Here  we  are,  five  of 
us  counting  the  little  Letty,  surrounding  her.  So  you 
must  not  sacrifice  yourself  unnecessarily." 

"  Oh,  I  am  not  one  of  those  who  having  put  their 
hand  to  the  plough " 

"  But  where  is  the  plough,  dear  Frau  von  Treu- 
mann ?     You  see  there  is,  after  all,  no  plough." 


xvj  THE  BENEFACTRESS  223 

"  Dear  princess,  you  always  were  so  literal." 

"  Ah,  you  used  to  reproach  me  with  that  in  the  old 
days,  when  you  wrote  poetry  and  read  it  to  me,  and  I 
was  rude  enough  to  ask  if  it  meant  anything.  We 
did  not  think  then  that  we  should  meet  here,  did 
we  r 

"  No,  indeed.  And  I  cannot  tell  you  how  much 
I  admire  your  courage." 

"  My  courage  ?  What  fine  qualities  you  invest 
me  with." 

"  Miss  Estcourt  has  told  me  how  admirably  you 
discharge  your  duties  here.  It  is  wonderful  to  me. 
You  are  an  example  to  us  all  ;  and  you  make  me  feel 
ashamed  of  my  own  uselessness," 

"  Oh,  you  underrate  yourself.  People  who  leave 
everything  to  go  and  help  others  cannot  talk  of  being 
useless.  Yes,  I  look  after  her  house  for  her,  and  I 
hope  to  look  after  her  as  well." 

"  After  her  ?  Is  that  one  of  your  duties  .''  Did 
she  stipulate  for  personal  supervision  when  she  engaged 
you  ?  How  times  are  changed.  When  my  Karl  was 
alive,  and  we  lived  at  Sommershof,  I  certainly  would  not 
have  tolerated  that  my  housekeeper  should  keep  me  in 
order  as  well  as  my  house." 

"The  case  was  surely  different,  dear  Frau  von 
Treumann.  Here  is  an  unusually  pretty  young 
thing,  with  money.  She  will  need  all  the  protection 
I  can  give  her,  and  it  is  a  satisfiiction  to  me  to  feel 
that  I  am  here  and  able  to  give  it." 

"  But  she  may  any  day  turn  round  and  request 
you  to  go." 

"  That  of  course  may  happen,  but  I  hope  it  will 
not  until  she  is  safe." 

"  But  do  you  think  her  so  prettv  .'' "  put  in  the 
baroness  wonderingly. 


224  THE  BENEFACTRESS     chap,  xvi 

"  Safe  ?  What  special  dangers  do  you  then  appre- 
hend for  her  ?  "  asked  Frau  von  Treumann  with  a  look 
of  amusement.  "  Dear  princess,  you  always  did  take 
your  duties  so  seriously.  What  a  treasure  you  would 
have  been  to  me  in  many  ways.  It  is  admirable.  But 
do  your  duties  really  include  watching  over  Miss 
Estcourt's  heart  ?  For  I  suppose  you  are  thinking 
of  her  heart  ?  " 

*  "I  am  thinking  of  adventurers,"  said  the  princess. 
"  Any  young  man  with  no  money  would  naturally  be 
delighted  to  secure  this  young  lady  and  Kleinwalde. 
And  those  who,  instead  of  money,  have  debts  would 
naturally  be  still  more  delighted."  And  the  princess 
in  her  turn  gazed  pensively  but  steadily  at  Frau  von 
Treumann.  "  No,"  she  said,  taking  up  her  work 
again,  "  I  was  not  thinking  of  her  heart,  but  of  the 
annoyance  she  might  be  put  to.  I  do  not  fancy  that 
her  heart  would  easily  be  touched." 

Anna  came  in  at  that  moment  for  a  paper  she 
wanted,  and  heard  the  last  words.  "  What  ? "  she 
said,  smiling,  as  she  unlocked  the  drawer  of  her 
writing-table  and  rummaged  among  the  contents, 
"  You  are  talking  about  hearts  ?  You  see  it  is  true 
that  women  can't  be  together  half  an  hour  without 
getting  on  to  subjects  like  that.  If  you  were  three 
men,  now,  you  would  talk  of  pigs."  Then  a  sudden 
recollection  of  LIncle  Joachim  coming  into  her  mind, 
she  added  with  conviction,  "  And  pigs  are  better." 

Nor  was  it  till  she  had  closed  the  door  behind 
her  that  it  struck  her  that  when  she  came  into  the 
room  both  the  princess  and  Frau  von  Treumann 
were  looking  preternaturally  bland. 


CHAPTER   XVII 

Axel  Lohm  was  in  the  hall,  having  his  coat  taken 
from  him  by  a  servant. 

"  You  here  ?  "  exclaimed  Anna,  holding  out  both 
hands.     She  v/as  more  than  usually  pleased  to  see  him. 

"  Manske  had  a  pile  of  letters  for  you,  and  could 
not  get  them  to  you  because  he  has  a  pastors'  con- 
ference at  his  house.  I  was  there  and  saw  the  letters, 
and  thought  you  might  want  them." 

"Oh,  I  don't  want  them  —  at  least,  there  is  no 
hurry.  But  the  letters  are  only  an  excuse.  Now 
isn  t  It  so .'' 

*'  An  excuse  ? "  he  repeated,  flushing. 

"  You  want  to  see  the  new  arrivals." 

"  Not  in  the  very  least." 

"Oh,  oh!  But  as  you  have  come  one  minute 
too  soon,  and  happened  to  meet  me  outside  the  door, 
your  plan  is  spoilt.  Are  those  the  letters  .''  What  a 
pile  !  "     Her  face  fell. 

"  But  you  are  looking  for  nine  more  ladies.  You 
want  a  wide  choice.  You  have  still  the  greater  part 
of  your  work  before  you." 

"  I  know.     Why  do  you  tell  me  that  ? " 

"  Because  you  do  not  seem  pleased  to  get  them." 

"  Oh  yes,  I  am  ;  but  I  am  tired  to-night,  and  the 
idea  of  nine  more  ladies  makes  me  feel — feel  sleepy." 

Q 


226  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

She  stood  under  the  lamp,  holding  the  packet 
loosely  by  its  string  and  smiling  up  to  him.  There 
were  shadows  in  her  eyes,  he  thought,  where  he  was 
used  to  seeing  two  cheerful  little  lights  shining,  and  a 
faint  ruefulness  in  the  smile. 

"  Well,  if  you  are  tired  you  must  go  to  bed,"  he 
said,  in  such  a  matter  of  fact  tone  that  they  both 
laughed. 

"  No,  I  mustn't,"  said  Anna  ;  "  I  am  on  my  way 
to  Herr  Dellwig  at  this  very  moment.  He's  in 
there,"  she  said,  with  a  motion  of  her  head  towards 
the  dining-room  door.  "Tell  me,"  she  added, 
lowering  her  voice,  "have  you  got  a  brick-kiln  at 
Lohm  ? " 

"A  brick-kiln.^  No.  Why  do  you  want  to 
know  ?  " 

"  But  why  haven't  you  got  a  brick-kiln  ^  " 

"  Because  there  is  nothing  to  make  bricks  with. 
Lohm  is  almost  entirely  sand." 

"  He  says  there  is  splendid  clay  here  in  one  part, 
and  wants  to  build  one." 

"  Who  .?     Dellwig  ?  " 

"Sh— sh." 

"  Your  uncle  would  have  built  one  long  ago  if 
there  really  had  been  clay.  I  must  look  at  the  place 
he  means.  I  cannot  remember  any  such  place.  And 
it  is  unlikely  that  it  should  be  as  he  says.  Pray  do 
not  agree  to  any  propositions  of  the  kind  hastily." 

"  It  would  cost  heaps  to  set  it  going,  wouldn't 
it?" 

"  Yes,  and  probably  bring  in  nothing  at  all." 

"  But  he  tries  to  make  out  that  it  would  be  quite 
cheap.  He  says  the  timber  could  all  be  got  out  of 
the  forest.  I  can't  bear  the  thought  of  cutting  down 
a  lot  of  trees." 


XVI r  THE  BENEFACTRESS  227 

"  If  you  can't  bear  the  thought  of  anything  he 
proposes,  then  simply  refuse  to  consider  it." 

"  But  he  talks  and  talks  till  it  really  seems  that  he 
is  right.  He  told  me  just  now  that  it  would  double 
the  value  of  the  estate." 

"  I  don't  believe  it." 

"  If  I  made  bricks,  according  to  him  I  could  take 
in  twice  as  many  poor  ladies." 

"  I  believe  you  will  be  happier  with  fewer  ladies 
and  no  bricks,"  said  Axel  with  great  positiveness. 

Anna  stood  thinking.  Her  eyes  were  fixed  on  the 
tip  of  the  finger  she  had  passed  through  the  loop  of 
string  that  tied  the  letters  together,  and  she  watched 
it  as  the  packet  twisted  round  and  round  and  pinched 
it  redder  and  redder.  "  1  suppose  you  never  wanted 
to  be  a  woman,"  she  said,  considering  this  phenomenon 
with  apparent  interest. 

Axel  laughed. 

"  The  mere  question  makes  you  laugh,"  she  said, 
looking  up  quickly.  "  I  never  heard  of  a  man  who 
did  want  to.  But  lots  of  women  would  give  anything 
to  be  men." 

"  And  you  are  one  of  them  ?  " 

"  Yes." 

He  laughed  again. 

"You  think  I  would  make  a  queer  little  man.''  " 
she  said,  laughing  too  ;  but  her  face  became  sober 
immediately,  and  with  a  glance  at  the  shut  dining- 
room  door  she  continued,  "  It  is  so  horrid  to  feel 
weak.  My  sister  Susie  says  I  am  very  obstinate. 
Perhaps  I  was  with  her,  but  different  people  have 
different  effects  on  one."  She  sank  her  voice  to  a 
whisper,  and  looked  at  him  anxiously.  "  You  can't 
think  what  an  effort  it  is  to  me  to  say  No  to  that 
man." 


IKl 

l.bb 

CHAP. 

'eel, 

my 

dear 

Miss 

hat 

the 

man 

must 

228  THE  BENEFACTRESS 

"What,  toDellwig?" 
"  Sh— sh." 

"  But   if  that   is   how   you 
Estcourt,    it    is    very    evident 

"  How  easy  it  is  to  say  that  !  Pray,  who  is  to 
tell  him  to  go  ?  " 

"  I  will,  if  you  wish." 

"  If  you  were  a  woman,  do  you  suppose  you  would 
be  able  to  turn  out  an  old  servant  who  has  worked 
here  so  many  years.-'  " 

"  Yes,  I  am  sure  I  would,  if  I  felt  that  he  was 
getting  beyond  my  control." 

"  No,  you  wouldn't.  All  sorts  of  things  would 
stop  you.  You  would  remember  that  your  uncle 
specially  told  you  to  keep  him  on,  that  he  has  been 
here  ages,  that  he  was  faithful  and  devoted " 

"  I  do  not  believe  there  was  much  devotion." 

"  Oh  yes,  there  was.  The  first  evening  he  cried 
about  dear  Uncle  Joachim." 

"  He  cried  .'' "  repeated  Axel,  incredulously. 

"  He  did  indeed." 

"  It  was  about  something  else,  then." 

"No,  he  really  cried  about  Uncle  Joachim.  He 
really  loved  him." 

Axel  looked  profoundly  unconvinced. 

"  But  after  all  those  are  not  the  real  reasons,"  said 
Anna;  "they  ought  to  be,  but  they're  not.  The 
simple  truth  is  that  I  am  a  coward,  and  I  am 
frightened  —  dreadfully  frightened  —  of  possible 
scenes."  And  she  looked  at  him  and  laughed  rue- 
fully. "  There — you  see  what  it  is  to  be  a  woman. 
If  I  were  a  man,  how  easy  things  would  be.  Please 
consider  the  mortification  of  knowing  that  if  he 
persuades  long  enough  I  shall  give  in,   against  my 


XVII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  229 

better  judgment.  He  has  the  strongest  will  I  think 
I  ever  came  across." 

"  But  you  have  not  yet  given  in,  I  hope,  on  any 
point  of  importance  ?  " 

"  Up  to  now  I  have  managed  to  say  No  to  every- 
thing I  don't  want  to  do.  But  you  would  laugh  if 
you  knew  what  those  Nos  cost  me.  Why  cannot  the 
place  go  on  as  it  was  ^  I  am  perfectly  satisfied.  But 
hardly  a  day  passes  without  some  wonderful  new  plan 
being  laid  before  me,  and  he  talks — oh,  how  he  talks  ! 
I  believe  he  would  convince  even  you." 

"  The  man  is  quite  beyond  your  control,"  said 
Axel  in  a  voice  of  anger  ;  and  voices  of  anger 
commonly  being  loud  voices,  this  one  produced 
the  effect  of  three  doors  being  simultaneously 
opened  :  the  door  leading  to  the  servants'  quarters, 
through  which  Marie  looked  and  vanished  again, 
retreating  to  the  kitchen  to  talk  prophetically  of 
weddings ;  the  dining-room  door  behind  which 
Dellwig  had  grown  more  and  more  impatient  at  being 
kept  waitin.g  so  long  ;  and  the  drawing-room  door, 
on  the  other  side  of  which  the  baroness  had  been 
lingering  for  some  moments,  desiring  to  go  upstairs 
for  her  scissors,  but  hesitating  to  interrupt  Anna's 
business  with  the  inspector,  whose  voice  she  thought 
it  was  that  she  heard. 

The  baroness  shut  her  door  again  immediately. 
"  y:I/ia — the  admirer  !  "  she  said  to  herself;  and  went 
back  quickly  to  her  seat.  "  The  Miss  is  talking  to 
a  junge  Herr^''  she  announced,  her  eyes  wider  open 
than  ever. 

'''' K  junge  Herr?''  echoed  Frau  von  Treumann. 
"  I  thought  the  inspector  was  old?  " 

"  It  must  be  Axel  Lohm,"  said  the  princess,  not 
raising  her  eyes  from  her  work.    "  He  often  comes  in." 


230  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

"  He  comes  courting,  evidently,"  said  the  baroness 
with  a  sub-acid  smile. 

*'  It  has  not  been  evident  to  me,"  said  the  princess 
coldly. 

"  I  thought  it  looked  like  it,"  said  the  baroness, 
with  more  meekness. 

"  Is  that  the  Lohm  who  was  engaged  to  one  of 
the  Kiederfels  girls  some  years  ago  } "  asked  Frau 
von  Treumann. 

"  Yes,  and  she  died." 

"  But  did  he  not  marry  soon  afterwards  ?  I 
heard  he  married." 

"  That  was  the  second  brother.  This  one  is  the 
eldest,  and  lives  next  to  us,  and  is  single." 

Frau  von  Treumann  was  silent  for  a  moment. 
Then  she  said  blandly,  "  Now  confess,  princess,  that 
he  is  the  perilous  person  from  whom  you  think  it 
necessary  to  defend  Miss  Estcourt." 

*'  Oh  no,"  said  the  princess  with  equal  blandness  ; 
"  I  have  no  fears  about  him." 

"  What,  is  he  too  possessed  of  an  invulnerable 
heart.''  " 

"  I  know  nothing  of  his  heart.  I  said,  I  believe, 
adventurers.  And  no  one  could  call  Axel  Lohm  an 
adventurer.  I  was  thinking  of  men  who  have  run 
through  all  their  own  and  all  their  relations'  money 
in  betting  and  gambling,  and  who  want  a  wife  who 
will  pay  their  debts." 

"  y^ch  so,''  said  Frau  von  Treumann  with  perfect 
urbanity.  And  if  this  talk  about  protecting  Miss 
Estcourt  from  adventurers  in  a  place  where  there 
were  apparently  no  human  beings  of  any  kind,  but 
only  trees  and  marshes,  might  seem  to  a  bystander  to 
be  foolishness,  to  the  speakers  it  was  luminousness 
itself,  and  in  no  way  increased  their  love  for  each  other. 


xvii  THE  BENEFACTRESS  231 

Meanwhile  Dellwig,  looking  through  the  door  and 
seeing  Lohm,  brought  his  heels  together  and  bowed 
with  his  customary  exaggeration.  "  I  beg  a  thousand 
times  pardon,"  he  said  ;  "  I  thought  the  gracious  Miss 
was  engaged  and  would  not  return,  and  I  was  about 
to  go  home." 

"  I  have  found  the  paper,  and  am  coming,"  said 
Anna,  coldly.  "  Well,  good-night,"  she  added  in 
English,  holding  out  her  hand  to  Axel. 

"  If  you  will  allow  me,  I  should  like  to  pay  my 
respects  to  Princess  Ludwig  before  I  go,"  he  said, 
thinking  thus  to  see  her  later. 

"  Ah  !  wasn't  I  right  ?"  she  said,  smiling.  "  You 
are  determined  to  look  at  the  new  arrivals.  How  can 
a  man  be  so  inquisitive  ?  But  I  will  say  good-night 
all  the  same.  I  shall  be  ages  with  Herr  Dellwig, 
and  shall  not  see  you  again."  She  shook  hands  with 
him,  and  went  into  the  dining-room,  Dellwig  stand- 
ing aside  with  deep  respect  to  let  her  pass.  But  she 
turned  to  say  something  to  him  as  he  shut  the  door, 
and  Axel  caught  the  expression  of  her  face,  the  intense 
boredom  on  it,  the  profound  distrust  of  self ;  and  he 
went  in  to  the  princess  with  an  unusually  severe  and 
determined  look  on  his  own. 

Dellwig  went  home  that  night  in  a  savage  mood. 
"  That  young  man,"  he  said  to  his  wife,  flinging  his 
hat  and  coat  on  to  a  chair  and  himself  on  to  a 
sofa,  "  is  thrusting  himself  more  and  more  into  our 
affairs." 

"  That  Lohm  } "  she  asked,  rolling  up  her  work 
preparatory  to  fetching  his  evening  drink. 

"  I  had  almost  got  the  Miss  to  consent  to  the 
brick-kiln.  She  was  quite  reasonable,  and  v.ent  out 
to  get  the  plan  I  had  made.  Then  she  met  him — he 
is  always  hanging  about." 


232  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

"And  then  ? "  inquired  Frau  Dellwig,  eagerly. 

"Pah — this  petticoat  government — having  to  beg 
and  pray  for  the  smallest  concession — it  makes  an 
honest  man  sick." 

"  She  will  not  consent.^  " 

*'  She  came  back  as  obstinate  as  a  mule.  It  all 
had  to  be  gone  into  again  from  the  beginning." 

"  She  will  not  consent  ?  " 

"  She  said  Lohm  would  look  at  the  place  and 
advise  her." 

"  Aber  so  was  I  "  cried  Frau  Dellwig,  crimson  with 
wrath.  "  Advise  her }  Did  you  not  tell  her  that 
you  were  her  adviser  .''  " 

"  You  may  be  sure  I  did.  I  told  her  plainly 
enough,  I  fancy,  that  Lohm  had  nothing  to  say 
here,  and  that  her  uncle  had  always  listened  to  me. 
She  sat  without  speaking,  as  she  generally  does,  not 
even  looking  at  me — I  never  can  be  sure  that  she  is 
even  listening." 

"  And  then  t  " 

"I  asked  her  at  last  if  she  had  lost  confidence 
in  me." 

"  And  then  }  " 

"  She  said  oh  Jiein^  in  her  affected  foreign  way — in 
the  sort  of  voice  that  might  just  as  well  mean  ohja.'' 
And  he  imitated,  with  great  bitterness,  Anna's  way 
of  speaking  German.  "  Mark  my  words,  Frau,  she 
is  as  weak  as  water  for  all  her  obstinacy,  and  the  last 
person  who  talks  to  her  can  always  bring  her  round." 

*'  Then  you  must  be  the  last  person." 

"  If  it  were  not  for  that  prig  Lohm,  that  inter- 
fering ass,  that  incomparable  rhinoceros " 

*'  He  wants  to  marry  her,  of  course." 

"If  he  marries  her "  Dellwig  stopped  short, 

and  stared  gloomily  at  his  muddy  boots. 


XVII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  233 

"  If  he  marries  her "  repeated  his  wife  ;  but 

she  too  stopped  short.  They  both  knew  well  enough 
what  would  happen  to  them  if  he  married  her. 

The  building  of  the  brick-kiln  had  come  to  be  a 
point  of  honour  with  the  Dellwigs.  Ever  since 
Anna's  arrival,  their  friends  the  neighbouring  farmers 
and  inspectors  had  been  congratulating  them  on 
their  complete  emancipation  from  all  manner  of 
control ;  for  of  course  a  young  ignorant  lady  would 
leave  the  adminstration  of  her  estate  entirely  in  her 
inspector's  hands,  confining  her  activities,  as  became 
a  lady  of  birth,  to  paying  the  bills.  Dellwig  had 
not  doubted  that  this  would  be  so,  and  had  boasted 
loudly  and  continually  of  the  different  plans  he  had 
made  and  was  going  to  carry  out.  The  estate  of 
which  he  was  now  practically  master  was  to  become 
renowned  in  the  province  for  its  enterprise  and  the 
extent,  in  every  direction,  of  its  operations.  The 
brick-kiln  was  a  long-cherished  scheme.  His  oldest 
friend  and  rival,  the  head  inspector  of  a  place  on  the 
other  side  of  Stralsund,  had  one,  and  had  constantly 
urged  him  to  have  one  too  ;  but  old  Joachim,  with- 
out illusions  as  to  the  quality  of  the  clay,  and  by 
no  manner  of  means  to  be  talked  into  disbelieving 
the  evidence  of  his  own  eyes,  would  not  hear  of  it, 
and  Dellwig  felt  there  was  nothing  to  be  done  in 
the  face  of  that  curt  refusal.  The  friend,  triumph- 
ing in  his  own  brick-kiln  and  his  own  more  pliable 
master,  jeered,  dug  him  in  the  ribs  at  the  Sunday 
gatherings,  and  talked  of  dependence,  obedience, 
and  restricted  powers.  Such  friends  are  difficult  to 
endure  with  composure  ;  and  Dellwig,  and  still  less 
his  wife,  for  many  months  past  had  hardly  been  able 
to  bear  the  word  brick  mentioned  in  their  presence. 
When   Anna  appeared   on   the   scene,  so  young,  so 


234  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

foreign,  and  so  obviously  foolish,  Dellwig,  certain 
now  of  success,  told  his  friend  on  the  very  first 
Sunday  night  that  the  brick-kiln  was  now  a  mere 
matter  of  weeks.  Always  a  boaster,  he  could 
not  resist  boasting  a  little  too  soon.  Besides,  he 
felt  very  sure  ;  and  the  friend,  too,  had  taken 
it  for  granted,  when  he  heard  of  the  impend- 
ing young  mistress,  that  the  thing  was  as  good 
as  built. 

That  was  in  March.  It  was  now  the  end  of 
April,  and  every  Sunday  the  friend  inquired  when 
the  building  was  to  be  begun,  and  every  Sunday 
Dellwig  said  it  would  begin  when  the  days  grew 
longer.  The  days  had  grown  longer,  would  have 
grown  in  a  few  weeks  to  their  longest,  as  the  friend 
repeatedly  pointed  out,  and  still  nothing  had  been 
done.  To  the  many  people  who  do  not  care  what 
their  neighbours  think  of  them,  the  torments  of  the 
two  Dellwigs  because  of  the  unbuilt  brick-kiln  will 
be  incomprehensible.  Yet  these  torments  were  so 
acute  that  in  the  weaker  moments  immediately  pre- 
ceding meals  they  both  felt  that  it  would  almost  be 
better  to  leave  Kleinwalde  than  to  stay  and  endure 
them ;  indeed,  before  dinner,  or  during  wakeful 
nights,  Frau  Dellwig  was  convinced  that  it  would 
be  better  to  die  outright.  The  good  opinion  of 
their  neighbours  —  more  exactly,  the  envy  of  their 
neighbours — was  to  them  the  very  breath  of  their 
nostrils.  In  their  set  they  must  be  the  first,  the 
undisputed  luckiest,  cleverest,  and  best  off.  Any 
position  less  mighty  would  be  unbearable.  And 
since  Anna  came  there  had  been  nothing  but  humilia- 
tions. First  the  dinner  to  the  Manskes,  from  which 
they  had  been  excluded — Frau  Dellwig  grew  hot  all 
over    at   the    recollection   of   the   Sunday  gathering 


XVII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  235 

succeeding  it  ;  then  the  renovation  of  the  Schloss 
without  the  least  reference  to  them,  without  the 
smallest  asking  for  advice  or  help  ;  then  the  frequent 
communications  with  the  pastor,  putting  him  quite 
out  of  his  proper  position,  the  confidence  placed  in 
him,  the  ridiculous  respect  shown  him,  his  connection 
with  the  mad  charitable  scheme  ;  and  now,  most 
dreadful  of  all,  this  obstinacy  in  regard  to  the  brick- 
kiln. It  was  becoming  clear  that  they  were  fairly 
on  the  way  to  being  pitied  by  the  neighbours. 
Pitied !  Horrid  thought.  The  great  thing  in 
life  was  to  be  so  situated  that  you  can  pity  others. 
But  to  be  pitied  yourself.?  Oh,  thrice-accursed  folly 
of  old  Joachim,  to  leave  Kleinwalde  to  a  woman  ! 
Frau  Dellwig  could  not  sleep  that  night  for  hating 
Anna.  She  lay  awake  staring  into  the  darkness 
with  hot  eyes,  and  hating  her  with  a  heartiness 
that  would  have  petrified  that  unconscious  young 
woman  as  she  sat  about  a  stone's  throw  off  in  her 
bedroom,  motionless  in  the  chair  into  which  she  had 
dropped  on  first  coming  upstairs,  too  tired  even  to 
undress,  after  her  long  struggle  with  Frau  Dellwig's 
husband.  "  The  Engldnderin  will  ruin  us  !  "  cried 
Frau  Dellwig  suddenly,  unable  to  hate  in  silence 
any  longer. 

"  IVie?  IVas?"  exclaimed  Dellwig,  who  had 
dozed  off,  and  was  startled. 

"  She  will — she  will !  "  cried  his  wife. 

"  Will  what  ?  Ruin  us  1  The  Engllinderin  ? 
Ach  was — Unsinn.  She  can  be  managed.  It  is 
Lohm  who  is  the  danger.  It  is  Lohm  who  will  ruin 
us.      If  we  could  get  rid  of  him " 

"  Ach  Gott,  if  he  would  die  !  "  exclaimed  Frau 
Dellwig,  with  fervent  hands  raised  heavenwards. 
"  Ach  Gott^  if  he  would  only  die  !  " 


236  THE  BENEFACTRESS    chap,  xvii 

'■'■  Ach  Gott^  ach  Gott ! '"  mimicked  her  husband 
irritably,  for  he  disliked  being  suddenly  awakened. 
"People  never  die  when  anything  depends  on  it,"  he 
grumbled,  turning  over  on  his  side.  And  he  cursed 
Axel  several  times,  and  went  to  sleep. 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

The  philosopher  tells  us  that,  after  the  healing  in- 
terval of  sleep,  we  are  prepared  to  meet  each  other 
every  morning  as  gods  and  goddesses  ;  so  fresh,  so 
strong,  so  lusty,  so  serene,  did  he  consider  the  newly- 
risen  and  the  some-time  separated  must  of  necessity 
be.  It  is  a  pleasing  belief;  and  Experience,  that 
hopelessly  prosaic  governess  who  never  gives  us  any 
holidays,  very  quickly  disposes  of  it.  For  what  is 
to  become  of  the  godUke  mood  if  only  one  in  a 
company  possess  it  ?  The  middle-aged  and  old,  who 
abound  in  all  companies,  are  seldom  godlike,  and 
are  never  so  at  breakfast. 

The  morning  after  the  arrival  of  the  Chosen, 
Anna  woke  up  in  the  true  Olympian  temper.  She 
had  been  brought  back  to  the  happy  world  of 
realities  from  the  happy  world  of  dreams  by  the 
sun  of  an  unusually  lovely  April  shining  on  her 
face.  She  had  only  to  open  her  window  to  be  con- 
vinced that  all  which  she  beheld  was  full  of  blessings. 
Just  beneath  her  window  on  the  grass  was  a  double 
cherry  tree  in  flower,  an  exquisite  thing  to  look 
down  on  with  the  sunshine  and  the  bees  busy  among 
its  blossoms.  The  unreasoning  joyfulness  that  in- 
variably took  possession  of  her  heart  whenever  the 
weather  was  fine,  filled  it  now  with  a  rapture  of  hope 


238  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

and  confidence.  This  world,  this  wonderful  morn- 
ing world  that  she  saw  and  smelt  from  her  window, 
was  manifestly  a  place  in  which  to  be  happy.  Every- 
thing she  saw  was  very  good.  Even  the  remem- 
brance of  Dellwig  was  transfigured  in  that  clear 
light.  And  while  she  dressed  she  took  herself 
seriously  to  task  for  the  depression  of  the  night 
before.  Depressed  she  had  certainly  been ;  and 
why  ?  Simply  because  she  was  over-excited  and 
over-tired,  and  her  spirit  was  still  so  mortifyingly 
unable  to  rise  superior  to  the  weakness  of  her  tire- 
some flesh.  And  to  let  herself  be  made  wretched 
by  Dellwig,  merely  because  he  talked  loud  and  had 
convictions  which  she  did  not  share  !  The  godlike 
morning  mood  was  strong  upon  her,  and  she  con- 
templated her  listless  self  of  the  previous  evening — 
the  self  that  had  sat  so  long  despondently  thinking 
instead  of  going  to  bed — with  contempt.  These 
evening  interviews  with  Dellv/ig,  she  reflected,  were 
a  mistake.  He  came  at  hours  when  she  was  least 
able  to  bear  his  wordiness  and  shouting,  and  it  was 
the  knowledge  of  his  impending  visit  that  made  her 
irritable  beforehand,  and  ruflled  the  absolute  serenity 
that  she  felt  was  alone  appropriate  in  a  house  dedi- 
cated to  love.  But  it  was  not  only  Dellwig  and 
the  brick-kiln  that  had  depressed  her ;  she  had 
actually  had  doubts  about  her  three  new  friends, 
doubts  as  to  the  receptivity  of  their  souls,  as  to 
the  capacity  of  their  souls  for  returning  love.  At 
one  awful  moment  she  had  even  doubted  whether 
they  had  souls  at  all,  but  had  hastily  blown  out  the 
candle  at  this  point,  extinguishing  the  doubt  at  the 
same  time,  smothering  it  beneath  the  bedclothes, 
and  falling  asleep  at  once,  after  the  fashion  of  healthy 
young  people. 


XVIII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  239 

Now,  at  the  beginning  of  the  new  day,  with  all 
her  misgivings  healed  by  sleep,  she  thought  calmly 
over  the  interview  she  had  had  with  Frau  von 
Treumann  before  supper  ;  for  it  was  that  interview 
that  had  been  the  chief  cause  of  her  dejection.  Frau 
von  Treumann  had  told  her  an  untruth,  a  quite 
obvious  and  absurd  untruth  in  the  face  of  the  corre- 
spondence, as  to  the  reason  of  her  coming  to  Klein- 
walde.  She  had  said  she  had  only  come  at  the 
instigation  of  her  son,  who  looked  upon  Anna  as  a 
deserving  object  of  help.  And  Anna  had  been  hurt, 
had  been  made  miserable,  by  the  paltriness  of  this 
fib.  Her  great  desire  was  to  reach  her  friends' 
souls  quickly,  to  attain  the  beautiful  intimacy  in 
which  the  smallest  fiction  is  unnecessary  ;  and  so 
little  did  Frau  von  Treumann  understand  her,  that 
she  had  begun  a  friendship  that  was  to  be  for  life 
with  an  untruth  that  would  not  have  misled  a  child. 
But  see  the  eiFect  of  sleep  and  a  gracious  April 
morning.  The  very  shabbiness  and  paltriness  of  the 
fib  made  Anna's  heart  yearn  over  the  poor  lady. 
Surely  the  pride  that  tried  to  hide  its  wounds  with 
rags  of  such  pitiful  fiimsiness  was  profoundly  pathetic.^ 
With  such  pride,  all  false  from  Anna's  point  of  view, 
but  real  and  painful  enough  to  its  possessor,  the 
necessity  that  drove  her  to  accept  Anna's  ofFer 
must  have  been  more  cruel  than  necessity,  always 
cruel,  generally  is.  Her  heart  yearned  over  her 
friend  as  she  dressed,  and  she  felt  that  the  weakness 
that  must  lie  was  a  weakness  greatly  requiring 
love.  For  nobody,  she  argued,  would  ever  lie 
unless  driven  to  it  by  fear  of  some  suffering.  If, 
then,  it  made  her  happy,  and  made  her  life  easier, 
let  her  think  that  Anna  believed  she  had  come 
for    her    sake.       What    did    it   matter  ^      No    one 


240  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

was    perfect  ;     and    many    people   were    surprisingly 
pathetic. 

Meanwhile  the  day  was  glorious,  and  she  went 
downstairs  with  the  springy  step  of  hope.  She  was 
thinking  exhilarating  thoughts,  thinking  that  there 
were  to  be  no  ripples  of  misgivings  and  misunder- 
standings on  the  clear  surface  of  this  first  morning. 
They  would  all  look  into  each  others'  candid  eyes  at 
breakfast,  and  read  a  mutual  consciousness  of  interests 
henceforward  to  be  shared,  of  happiness  to  be  shared, 
of  life  to  be  shared — the  life  of  devoted  and  tender 
sisters. 

The  hall  door  stood  open,  and  the  house  was  full 
of  the  smell  of  April  ;  the  smell  of  new  leaves 
budding,  of  old  leaves  rotting,  of  damp  earth,  pine 
needles,  wet  moss,  and  marshes.  "  Oh,  the  lovely, 
lovely  morning !"  whispered  Anna,  running  out  on 
to  the  steps  with  outstretched  arms  and  upturned 
face,  as  though  she  would  have  clasped  all  the  beauty 
round  and  held  it  close.  She  drew  in  a  long  breath, 
and  turned  back  into  the  house  singing  in  an  impas- 
sioned but  half-suppressed  voice  the  first  verse  of  the 
Magnificat.  The  door  leading  to  the  kitchen  opened, 
and  to  her  surprise  Baroness  Elmreich  emerged  from 
those  dark  regions.  The  Magnificat  broke  off 
abruptly,  Anna  was  surprised.  Why  the  kitchen  ^ 
The  baroness  saw  her  hostess's  figure  motionless 
against  the  light  of  the  open  door,  but  the  light 
behind  was  strong  and  the  hall  was  dark,  and  she 
thought  it  was  Anna's  back.  Hoping  that  she  had 
not  been  noticed  she  softly  closed  the  door  again  and 
waited  behind  it  till  she  could  come  out  unseen. 

Anna  supposed  that  the  princess  must  be  showing 
her  the  servants'  quarters,  and  went  into  the  break- 
fast room  ;  but  in  it  sat  the  princess,  making  coffee. 


XVIII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  241 

"  There  you  are,"  said  the  princess  heartily. 
"That  is  nice.  Now  we  can  drink  our  coffee  com- 
fortably together  before  the  others  come  down. 
Have  you  been  out  .''     You  smell  of  fresh  air." 

"Only  a  moment  on  the  doorstep." 

"  Come,  sit  next  to  me.  You  have  slept  well,  I 
can  see.  Notice  the  advantage  of  coming  straight 
into  breakfast,  and  not  running  about  the  forest — 
you  get  here  first,  and  so  get  the  best  cup  of  cofi^ee." 

"  But  it  isn't  proper  for  me  to  have  the  best,"  said 
Anna,  smiling  as  she  took  the  cup,  "when  I  have 
guests  here." 

"Yes,  it  is — very  proper  indeed.  Besides,  you 
told  me  they  were  sisters." 

"  So  they  are.     Has  the  baroness  not  been  here  ^  " 

"  No,  she  is  still  in  bed." 

"  No,  I  saw  her  a  moment  ago.  {  thought  you 
were  with  her." 

"  Oh,  my  dear — so  early  in  the  morning  !  "  pro- 
tested the  princess.  "  When  did  I  see  her  last .'' 
Less  than  nine  hours  ago.  She  followed  me  into  my 
bedroom  and  talked  much.  I  could  not  begin  again 
with  her  the  first  thing  in  the  morning,  even  to  please 
you."  And  she  looked  at  Anna  very  affectionately. 
"You  were  tired  last  night,  were  you  not,"  she  con- 
tinued. "  Axel  Lohm  stayed  so  late,  I  think  he 
wanted  to  speak  to  you.  But  you  went  straight  up 
to  bed.?" 

"  I  had  seen  him  before  he  went  in  to  you.  He 
didn't  want  to  speak  to  me.  He  was  consumed  by 
curiosity  about  our  new  friends." 

"  Was  he  ?  He  did  not  show  much  interest  in 
them.  He  talked  to  me  nearly  all  the  time.  He 
thought  for  a  moment  that  he  knew  the  baroness — 
at  least,  he  stared  at  her  at  first  and  seemed  surprised. 

R 


242  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

But  it  turned  out  that  she  was  only  like  some  one  he 
knew.  She  had  evidently  never  seen  him  before. 
It  is  a  great  pleasure  to  me  to  talk  to  that  young 
man,"  the  princess  went  on,  while  Anna  ate  her  toast. 

"So  it  is  to  me,"  said  Anna. 

"  I  have  met  many  people  in  my  life,  and  have 
often  wondered  at  the  dearth  of  nice  ones — how  few 
there  are  that  one  likes  to  be  with  and  wishes  to  see 
again  and  again.     Axel  is  one  of  the  few,  decidedly." 

"So  he  is,"  agreed  Anna. 

"  There  is  goodness  written  on  every  line  of  his 
face." 

"Oh,  he  has  the  kindest  face.  And  so  strong. 
I  feel  that  if  anything  happened  here,  anything  dread- 
ful, that  he  would  make  it  right  again  at  once.  He 
would  mend  us  if  we  got  smashed,  and  build  us  up 
again  if  we  got  burned,  and  protect  us,  this  houseful 
of  lone  women,  if  ever  anybody  tried  to  run  away 
with  us."  And  Anna  nodded  reassuringly  at  the 
princess,  and  took  another  piece  of  toast.  "  That  is 
how  I  feel  about  him,"  she  said.  "So  agreeably 
certain,  not  only  of  his  willingness  to  help,  but  of 
his  power  to  do  it."  Talking  about  Axel  she  quite 
forgot  the  apparition  of  the  baroness  that  she  had 
just  seen.  He  was  so  kind,  so  good,  so  strong. 
How  much  she  admired  strength  of  purpose,  inde- 
pendence, the  character  that  was  determined  to  find 
its  happiness  in  doing  its  best. 

"  If  I  had  a  daughter,"  said  the  princess,  filling 
Anna's  cup,  "she  should  marry  Axel  Lohm." 

"  If  /  had  a  daughter,"  said  Anna,  "  she  should 
marry  him,  so  your's  couldn't.  I  wouldn't  even  ask 
her  if  she  liked  it.  I'd  be  so  sure  that  it  was  a  good 
thing  for  her  that  I'd  just  say,  '  My  dear,  I  have 
chosen  my  son-in-law.     Get  your  hat,  and  come  to 


XVIII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  243 

church  and  marry  him.'  And  there'd  be  an  end  of 
thaty 

The  princess  felt  that  it  was  an  unprofitable  em- 
ployment, trying  to  help  on  Axel's  cause.  She  could 
not  but  see  what  he  thought  of  Anna  ;  and  after  the 
touching  manner  of  widows,  was  convinced  of  the 
superiority  of  marriage,  as  a  means  of  real  happiness 
for  a  woman,  over  any  and  every  other  form  of 
occupation.  Yet  whenever  she  talked  of  him  she 
was  met  by  the  same  hearty  agreement  and  frank 
enthusiasm,  the  very  words  being  taken  out  of  her 
mouth,  and  her  own  praises  of  him  doubled  and 
trebled.  It  was  a  promising  friendship,  but  it  was  a 
singularly  unpromising  prelude  to  love. 

'•'  Please  make  some  fresh  coffee,"  begged  Anna  ; 
"  the  others  will  be  coming  down  soon,  and  must  not 
have  cold  stuff."  Her  voice  grew  tender  at  the 
mere  mention  of  "•  the  others."  For  the  princess  and 
Axel,  both  of  whom  she  liked  so  much,  it  never  took 
on  those  tender  tones,  as  the  princess  had  already 
noted.  There  was  nothing  in  either  of  them  to 
appeal  to  that  side  of  her  nature,  the  tender,  mother 
side,  which  is  in  all  good  women  and  most  bad  ones. 
They  were  her  friends,  staunch  friends,  she  felt,  and 
of  course  she  liked  and  respected  them  ;  but  they 
were  sturdy,  capable  people,  firmly  planted  on  their 
own  feet,  able  to  battle  successfully  with  life — as 
different  as  possible  from  these  helpless  ones  who 
needed  her,  whom  she  had  saved,  to  whom  she  was 
everything,  between  whom  and  want  and  sorrow  she 
was  fixed  as  a  shield. 

Two  of  the  helpless  ones  came  in  at  that  moment, 
with  frosty,  early -morning  faces.  Anna  put  the 
vision  she  had  seen  at  the  kitchen  door  from  her 
mind,  and  went  to  meet  them  with  happy  smiles  and 


244  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

greetings.  Frau  von  Treumann  did  her  best  to  re- 
spond warmly,  but  it  was  very  early  to  be  enthusiastic, 
and  at  that  hour  of  the  day  she  was  accustomed  to 
being  a  little  cross.  Besides,  she  had  had  no  coffee 
yet,  and  her  hostess  evidently  had,  and  that  made  a 
great  difference  to  one's  sentiments.  The  baroness 
looked  pinched  and  bloodless ;  she  was  as  frigid  as 
ever  to  Anna,  said  nothing  about  having  seen  her 
before,  and  seemed  to  want  to  be  left  alone.  So  that 
the  mutual  gazing  into  each  other's  eyes  did  not, 
after  all,  take  place. 

The  princess  waited  to  see  that  they  had  all  they 
wanted,  and  then  went  out  rattling  her  keys  ;  and 
after  an  interval,  during  which  Anna  chattered  cheer- 
ful and  ungrammatical  German,  and  the  window  was 
shut,  and  warming  food  eaten,  Frau  von  Treumann 
became  amiable  and  began  to  talk. 

She  drew  from  her  pocket  a  letter  and  a  photo- 
graph. "  This  is  my  son,"  she  said.  "  I  brought  it 
down  to  show  you.  And  I  have  had  a  long  letter 
from  him  already.  He  never  neglects  his  mother. 
Truly  a  good  son  is  a  source  of  joy." 

"  I  suppose  so,"  said  Anna. 

The  baroness  turned  her  eyes  slowly  round  and 
fixed  them  on  the  photograph.  "  Aha,"  she  thought, 
"  the  son  again.  Last  night  the  son,  this  morning 
the  son — always  the  son.  The  excellent  Treumann 
loses  no  time." 

"  He  is  good-looking,  my  Karlchen,  is  he  not  ^  " 

"  Yes,"  said  Anna.      "  It  is  a  becoming  uniform." 

"Oh  —  becoming!  He  looks  adorable  in  it. 
Especially  on  his  horse.  I  would  not  let  him  be  any- 
thing but  a  hussar  because  of  the  charming  uniform. 
And  he  suits  it  exactly — such  a  lightly  built,  grace- 
ful  figure.      He   never  stumbles   over   people's   feet. 


XVIII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  245 

Herr  von  Lohm  nearly  crushed  my  poor  foot  last 
night.  It  was  difficult  not  to  scream.  I  never  did 
admire  those  long  men  made  by  the  meter,  who  seem 
as  though  they  would  go  on  for  ever  if  there  were  no 
ceilings." 

"  He  is  rather  long,"  agreed  Anna,  smiling. 

"  Heartwhole,"    thought    Frau    von    Treumann. 

"  Tell  me,  dear  Miss  Estcourt "  she  said,  laying 

her  hand  on  Anna's. 

"  Oh,  don't  call  me  Miss  Estcourt." 

"But  what,  then.?  " 

"  Oh,  you  must  call  me  Anna.  We  are  to  be  like 
sisters  here — and  you,  too,  please,  call  me  Anna,"  she 
said,  turning  to  the  baroness. 

"You  are  very  good,"  said  the  baroness. 

"Well,  my  little  sister,"  said  Frau  von  Treumann, 
smiling,  "  my  baby  sister " 

"  Baby  sister  !  "  thought  the  baroness.  "  Excel- 
lent Treumann." 

"  — you  know  an  old  woman  of  my  age  could 
not  really  have  a  sister  of  yours." 

"  Yes,  she  could — not  a  whole  sister,  perhaps,  but 
a  half  one." 

"  Well,  as  you  please.  The  idea  is  sweet  to  me. 
I  was  going  to  ask  you — but  Karlchen's  letter  is  too 
touching,   really — such   thoughts   in   it  —  such  high 

ideals "      And   she   turned  over   the   sheets,  of 

which  there  were  three,  and  began  to  blow  her  nose. 

"  He  has  written  you  a  very  long  letter,"  said 
Anna,  pleasantly  ;  the  extent  to  which  the  nose- 
blowing  was  being  carried  made  her  uneasv.  Was 
there  to  be  crying  ? 

"  You  have  a  cold,  dear  Frau  von  Treumann  ? 
inquired  the  baroness  with  solicitude. 

"  yfc//    neifi — dock    nein"    murmured    Frau    von 


246  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

Treumann,  turning  the  sheets  over,  and  blowing  her 
nose  harder  than  ever. 

"  It  will  come  off,"  thought  Letty,  who  had 
slipped  in  unnoticed,  and  was  eating  bread  and  butter 
alone  at  the  further  end  of  the  table. 

*'  Poor  thing,"  thought  Anna,  "  she  adores  that 
Karlchen." 

There  was  a  pause,  during  which  the  nose  con- 
tinued to  be  blown. 

"  His  letter  is  beautiful,  but  sad — very  sad,"  said 
Frau  von  Treumann,  shaking  her  head  despondingly. 
"  Poor  boy — poor  dear  boy — he  misses  his  mother, 
of  course.  I  knew  he  would,  but  I  did  not  dream  it 
would  be  as  bad  as  this.  Oh,  my  dear  Miss  Estcourt 
—  well,  Anna  then" — smiling  faintly — "I  could 
never  describe  to  you  the  wrench  it  was,  the  terrible, 
terrible  wrench,  leaving  him  who  for  five  years — I  am 
a  widow  five  years — has  been  my  all." 

"  It  must  have  been  dreadful,"  murmured  Anna 
sympathetically. 

The  baroness  sat  straight  and  motionless,  staring 
fixedly  at  Frau  von  Treumann. 

" '  When  shall  I  see  you  again,  my  dearest 
mamma  .f*'  were  his  last  words.  And  I  could  give 
him  no  hope — no  answer."  The  handkerchief  went 
up  to  her  eyes. 

"  What  is  she  gassing  about  .''  "  wondered  Letty. 

"  I  can  see  him  now,  fading  away  on  the  platform 
as  my  train  bore  me  off  to  an  unknown  life.  An 
only  son— the  only  son  of  a  widow — is  everything, 
everything  to  his  mother." 

*'  He  must  be,"  said  Anna. 

There  was  another  silence.  Then  Frau  von  Treu- 
mann wiped  her  eyes  and  took  up  the  letter  again. 
"  Now    he    writes    that    though    I    have    only    been 


XVIII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  247 

away  two  days  from  Rislar,  the  town  he  is  stationed 
at,  it  seems  already  like  years.     Poor  boy  !      He  is 

quite  desperate — listen  to  this — poor  boy "    And 

she  smiled  a  little,  and  read  aloud,  "  '  I  must  see  you, 
liebste,  beste  Mama^  from  time  to  time.  I  had  no 
idea  the  separation  would  be  like  this,  or  I  could  never 
have  let  you  go.      Pray  beg  Miss  Estcourt '" 

"  Aha,"  thought  the  baroness. 

"  '  — to  allow  me  to  visit  my  mother  occasion- 
ally. There  must  be  an  inn  in  the  village.  If  not, 
I  could  stay  at  Stralsund,  and  would  in  no  way  in- 
trude on  her.  But  I  must  see  my  dearest  mother, 
the  being  I  have  watched  over  and  cared  for  ever 
since  my  father's  death.'      Poor,  dear,  foolish  boy — 

he  is  desperate "     And  she  folded  up  the  letter, 

shook  her  head,  smiled,  and  suddenly  buried  her  face 
in  her  handkerchief. 

"  Excellent  Treumann,"  thought  the  unblinking 
baroness. 

Anna  sat  in  some  perplexity.  Sons  had  not 
entered  into  her  calculations.  In  the  correspondence, 
she  remembered,  the  son  had  been  lightly  passed  over 
as  an  officer  living  on  his  pay  and  without  a  super- 
fluous peimy  for  the  support  of  his  parent.  Not  a 
word  had  been  said  of  any  unusual  affection  existing 
between  them.  Now  it  appeared  that  the  mother 
and  son  were  all  in  all  to  each  other.  If  so,  of 
course  the  separation  was  dreadful.  A  mother's 
love  was  a  sentiment  that  inspired  Anna  with  pro- 
found respect.  Before  its  unknown  depths  and 
heights  she  stood  in  awe  and  silence.  How  could 
she,  a  spinster,  even  faintly  comprehend  that  sacred 
feeling  }  It  was  a  mysterious  and  beautiful  emotion 
that  she  could  only  reverence  from  afar.  Clearly 
she  must  not  come  between   parent  and  child  ;  but 


248  THE  BENEFACTRESS    chap,  xviii 

yet — yet  she  wished  she  had  had  more  time  to  think 
it  over. 

She  looked  rather  helplessly  at  Frau  von  Treu- 
mann,  and  gave  her  hand  a  little  squeeze.  The 
hand  did  not  return  the  squeeze,  and  the  face  re- 
mained buried  in  the  handkerchief.  Well,  it  would 
be  absurd  to  want  to  cut  off  the  son  entirely  from 
his  mother.  If  he  came  occasionally  to  see  her  it 
could  not  matter  much.  She  gave  the  hand  a  firmer 
squeeze,  and  said  with  an  effort  that  she  did  her  best 
to  conceal,  "  But  he  must  come  then,  when  he  can. 
It  is  rather  a  long  way — didn't  you  say  you  had  to 
stay  a  night  in  BerHn  ^  " 

"  Oh,  my  dear  Miss  Estcourt — my  dear  Anna  !  " 
cried  Frau  von  Treumann,  snatching  the  handkerchief 
from  her  face  and  seizing  Anna's  hand  in  both  hers, 
"what  a  weight  from  my  heart  —  what  a  heavy, 
heavy  weight !  All  night  I  was  thinking  how  shall  I 
bear  this  ?  I  may  write  to  him,  then,  and  tell  him 
what  you  say  ?  A  long  journey  ?  You  are  afraid  it 
will  tire  him  ?  Oh,  it  will  be  nothing,  nothing  at  all 
to  Karlchen  if  only  he  can  see  his  mother.  How 
can  I  thank  you  !  You  will  say  my  gratitude  is 
excessive  for  such  a  little  thing,  and  truly  only  a 
mother  could  understand  it " 

In  short,  Karlchen's  appearance  at  Kleinwalde  was 
now  only  a  matter  of  days. 

"  Unverschdmt,''  was  the  baroness's  mental  com- 
ment. 


CHAPTER   XIX 

Anna  put  on  her  hat  and  went  out  to  think  it  over, 
Fraulein  Kuhrauber  was  apparently  still  asleep. 
Letty,  accompanied  by  Miss  Leech,  had  to  go  to 
Lohm  parsonage  for  her  first  lesson  with  Herr 
Klutz,  who  had  undertaken  to  teach  her  German. 
Frau  von  Treumann  said  she  must  write  at  once  to 
Karlchen,  and  shut  herself  up  to  do  it.  The  baroness 
was  vague  as  to  her  intentions,  and  disappeared.  So 
Anna  started  off  by  herself,  crossed  the  road,  and 
walked  quickly  away  into  the  forest.  "  If  it  makes 
her  so  happy,  then  I  am  glad,"  she  said  to  herself. 
*'  She  Is  here  to  be  happy  ;  and  if  she  wants  Karlchen 
so  badly,  why  then  she  must  have  him  from  time  to 
time.     I  wonder  why  I  don't  like  Karlchen." 

She  walked  quickly,  with  her  eyes  on  the  ground. 
The  mood  in  which  she  sang  magnificats  had  left  her, 
nor  did  she  look  to  see  what  the  April  morning  was 
doing.  Frau  von  Treumann  had  not  been  under 
her  roof  twenty-four  hours,  and  already  her  son  had 
been  added  —  if  only  occasionally,  still  undoubtedly 
added  —  to  the  party.  Suppose  the  baroness  and 
Fraulein  Kuhrauber  should  severally  disclose  an  in- 
ability to  live  without  being  visited  by  some  cherished 
relative  ?  Suppose  the  other  nine,  the  still  Unchosen, 
should    each    turn    out    to   have    a    relative    waiting 


250  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

tragically  in  the  background  for  permission  to  make 
repeated  calls  ?  And  suppose  these  relatives  should 
all  be  male  ? 

These  were  grave  questions — so  grave  that  she  was 
quite  at  a  loss  how  to  answer  them.  And  then  she  felt 
that  somebody  was  looking  at  her  ;  and  raising  her  eyes, 
she  saw  Axel  on  the  mossy  path  quite  close  to  her. 

"So  deep  in  thought?  "  he  asked,  smiling  at  her 
start. 

Anna  wondered  how  it  was  that  he  so  often  went 
through  the  forest.  Was  it  a  short  cut  from  Lohm 
to  anywhere  ?  She  had  met  him  three  or  four  times 
lately,  in  quite  out  of  the  way  parts.  He  seemed  to 
ride  through  it  and  walk  through  it  at  all  hours  of 
the  day. 

"  How  is  your  potato-planting  getting  on  ? "  she 
asked  involuntarily.  She  knew  what  a  rush  there 
was  just  then  putting  the  potatoes  in,  for  she  did  not 
drive  every  day  about  her  fields  in  a  cart  without 
springs  with  Dellwig  for  nothing.  Axel  must  have 
potatoes  to  plant  too  ;  why  didn't  he  stay  at  home, 
then,  and  do  it  ? 

"  What  a  truly  proper  question  for  a  country  lady 
to  ask,"  he  said,  looking  amused.  "  You  waste  no 
time  in  conventional  good  mornings  or  asking  how  I 
do,  but  begin  at  once  with  potatoes.  Well,  I  do  not 
believe  that  you  are  really  interested  in  mine,  so  I 
shall  tell  you  nothing  about  them.  You  only  want 
to  remind  me  that  I  ought  to  be  seeing  them  planted 
instead  of  walking  about  your  woods." 

Anna  smiled.  "  I  believe  I  did  mean  something 
like  that,"  she  said. 

"  Well,  I  am  not  so  aimless  as  you  suppose,"  he 
returned,  walking  by  her  side.  "  I  have  been  looking 
at  that  place," 


XIX  THE  BENEFACTRESS 


251 


"What  place  ?" 

"Where  Dellwig  wants  to  build  the  brick-kiln." 

"  Oh  ?      What  do  you  think  of  it  ?  " 

"What  I  knew  I  would  think  of  it.  It  is  a 
fool's  plan.  The  clay  is  the  most  wretched  stuff. 
It  has  puzzled  me,  seeing  how  very  poor  it  is,  that  he 
should  be  so  eager  to  have  the  thing.  I  should  have 
credited  him  with  more  sense." 

"  He  is  quite  absurdly  keen  on  it.  Last  night  I 
thought  he  would  never  stop  persuading." 

"  But  you  did  not  give  in  .''  " 

*'  Not  an  inch.  I  said  I  would  ask  you  to  look  at 
It,  and  then  he  was  simply  rude.  I  do  believe  he  will 
have  to  go.  I  don't  really  think  we  shall  ever  get  on 
together.  Certainly,  as  you  say  the  clay  is  bad,  I 
shall  refuse  to  build  a  brick-kiln." 

Axel  smiled  at  her  energy.  In  the  morning  she 
was  always  determined  about  Dellwig.  "You  are 
very  brave  to-day,"  he  said.  "Last  night  you 
seemed  afraid  of  him." 

"  He  comes  when  I  am  tired.  I  am  not  going  to 
see  him  in  the  evening  any  more.  It  is  too  dreadful 
as  a  finish  to  a  happy  day." 

"It  was  a  happy  day,  then,  yesterday  .'* "  he  asked 
quickly. 

"  Yes — that  is,  it  ought  to  have  been,  and  prob- 
ably would  have  been  if — if  I  hadn't  been  tired." 

"But  the  others — the  new  arrivals — they  must 
have  been  happy  .^  " 

"  Yes — oh  yes — "  said  Anna,  hesitating,  "  I 
think  so.  Fraulein  Kuhriiuber  was,  I  am  sure,  at 
intervals.  I  think  the  other  two  would  have  been 
if  they  hadn't  had  a  journey." 

"  By  the  way,  do  you  remember  what  I  said 
yesterday  about  the  Elmreichs  .''  " 


252  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

*'  Yes  I  do.  You  said  horrid  things."  Her  voice 
changed. 

"  About  a  Baron  Elmreich.  But  he  had  a  sister 
who  made  a  hash  of  her  life.  I  saw  her  once  or 
twice  in  Berlin.  She  was  dancing  at  the  Winter- 
garten,  and  under  her  own  name." 

"  Poor  thing.     But  it  doesn't  interest  me." 

"  Don't  get  angry  yet." 

"  But  it  doesn't  interest  me.  And  why  shouldn't 
she  dance  ?  I  knew  several  people  who  ended  by 
dancing  at  London  Wintergartens." 

"  You  admit,  then,  that  it  is  an  end  ^ " 

"  It  is  hardly  a  beginning,"  conceded  Anna. 

"  She  was  so  amazingly  like  your  baroness  would 
be  if  she  painted  and  wore  a  wig " 

*'  That  you  are  convinced  they  must  be  sisters. 
Thank  you.  Now  what  do  you  suppose  is  the  good 
of  telling  me  that  t  "  And  she  stood  still  and  faced 
him,  her  eyes  flashing. 

Do  what  he  would.  Axel  could  not  help  smiling 
at  her  wrath.  It  was  the  wrath  of  a  mother  whose 
child  has  been  hurt  by  some  one  on  purpose.  "  I 
wish,"  he  said,  "that  you  would  not  be  so  angry 
when  I  tell  you  things  that  might  be  important  for 
you  to  know.  If  your  baroness  is  really  the  sister  of 
the  dancing  baroness " 

*'  But  she  is  not.  She  told  me  last  night  that  she 
has  no  brothers  and  sisters.  And  she  wrote  it  in  the 
letters  before  she  came.  Do  you  think  it  is  a  praise- 
worthy occupation  for  a  man,  doing  his  best  to  find 
out  disgraceful  things  about  a  very  poor  and  very 
helpless  woman  ? " 

"  No,  I  do  not,"  said  Axel  decidedly.  "  Under 
any  other  circumstances  I  would  leave  the  poor 
lady  to  take  her  chance.     But  do  consider,"  he  said, 


x.x  THE  BENEFACTRESS  253 

following  her,  for  she  had  begun  to  walk  on  quickly 
again,  "  do  consider  your  unusual  position.  You  are 
so  young  to  be  living  away  from  your  friends,  and  so 
young  and  inexperienced  to  be  at  the  head  of  a  home 
for  homeless  women— you  ought  to  be  quite  extra- 
ordinarily particular  about  the  antecedents  of  the 
people  you  take  in.  It  would  be  most  unpleasant  if 
it  got  about  that  they  were  not  respectable." 

"  But  they  are  respectable,"  said  Anna,  looking 
straight  before  her. 

"  A  sister  who  dances  at  the  Wintergarten " 

"  Did  I  not  tell  you  that  she  has  no  sister  .'' " 

Axel  shrugged  his  shoulders.  "  The  resemblance 
is  so  striking  that  they  might  be  twins,"  he  said. 

"  Then  you  think  she  says  what  is  not  true.''  " 

"  How  can  I  tell  ?  " 

Anna  stopped  again  and  faced  him.  "  Well, 
suppose  it  were  true — suppose  it  is  her  sister,  and  she 
has  tried  to  hide  it — do  you  know  how  I  should  feel 
about  it  ? " 

"  Properly  scandalised,  I  hope." 

"  I  should  love  her  all  the  more.  Oh,  I  should 
love  her  twice  as  much  !  Why,  think  of  the  misery 
and  the  shame — poor,  poor  little  woman — trying  to 
hide  it  all,  bearing  it  all  by  herself — she  must  have 
loved  her  sister,  she  must  have  loved  her  brother. 
It  isn't  true,  of  course,  but  supposing  it  were,  could 
you  tell  me  any  reason  why  I  should  turn  my  back 
on  her  .-^  " 

She  stood  looking  at  him,  her  eyes  full  of  angry 
tears. 

He  did  not  answer.  If  that  was  the  way  she  felt, 
what  could  he  do .'' 

"  I  never  understood,"  she  went  on  passionately, 
*'  why  the   innocent   should    be    punished.      Do   you 


254  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

suppose  a  woman  would  like  her  brother  to  cheat  and 
then  shoot  himself  ?  Or  like  her  sister  to  go  and  dance  ? 
But  if  they  do  do  these  things,  besides  her  own  grief 
and  horror,  she  is  to  be  shunned  by  everybody  as 
though  she  were  infectious.  Is  that  fair  ?  Is  that 
right  }     Is  it  in  the  least  Christian  ^  " 

"  No,  of  course,  it  is  not.  It  is  very  hard  and 
very  ugly,  but  it  is  quite  natural.  An  old  woman 
in  a  strong  position  might  take  such  a  person  up, 
perhaps,  and  comfort  her  and  love  her  as  you  propose 
to  do,  but  a  young  girl  ought  not  to  do  anything  of 
the  sort." 

Anna  turned  away  with  a  quick  movement  of 
impatience  and  walked  on.  "  If  you  argue  on  the 
young  girl  basis,"  she  said,  "we  shall  never  be  able 
to  talk  about  a  single  thing.  When  will  you  leave 
off  about  my  young  girlishness  }  In  five  years  I 
shall  be  thirty — will  you  go  on  till  I  have  reached 
that  blessed  age  ^  " 

"  I  have  no  right  to  go  on  to  you  about  anything," 
said  Axel. 

"  Precisely,"  said  Anna. 

"  But  please  remember  that  I  owe  an  enormous 
debt  of  gratitude  to  your  uncle,  and  make  allowances 
for  mc  if  I  am  over-zealous  in  my  anxiety  to  shield 
his  niece  from  possible  unpleasantness." 

"  Then  don't  keep  telling  me  I  am  too  young  to 
do  good.  It  is  ludicrous,  considering  my  age,  besides 
being  dreadful.  You  will  say  that,  I  believe,  till  I 
am  thirty  or  forty,  and  then  when  you  can't  decently 
say  it  any  more,  and  I  still  want  to  do  things,  you'll 
say  I'm  old  enough  to  know  better." 

Axel  laughed.  Anna's  dimples  appeared  for  an 
instant,  but  vanished  again. 

"Now,"  she  said,  "I  am  not  going  to  talk  about 


XIX  THE  BENEFACTRESS  255 

poor  little  Else  any  more.  Let  her  distant  relations 
dance  till  they  are  tired — it  concerns  nobody  here  at 
all." 

"  Little  Else  ?  " 

"  The  baroness.  Of  course  we  shall  call  each 
other  by  our  Christian  names.     We  are  sisters." 

"  I  see." 

"You  don't  see  at  all,"  she  said,  with  a  swift 
sideward  glance  at  him. 

"  My  dear  Miss  Estcourt " 

"  If  my  plan  succeeds  it  will  certainly  not  be 
because  I  have  been  encouraged." 

"  I  think,"  he  said  w^ith  sudden  warmth,  ''  that  the 
plan  is  beautiful,  and  could  only  have  been  made  by 
a  beautiful  nature." 

"Oh.^"  ejaculated  Anna,  surprised.  A  flush  of 
gratification  came  into  her  face.  The  heartiness  of 
the  tone  surprised  her  even  more  than  the  words. 
She  stood  still  to  look  at  him.  *' It  is  a  pity,"  she 
said  softly,  "  that  nearly  always  when  we  are  together 
we  get  angry,  for  you  can  be  so  kind  when  you 
choose.  Say  nice  things  to  me.  Let  us  be  happy. 
I  love  being  happy." 

She  held  out  her  hand,  smiling.  He  took  it  and 
gave  it  a  hearty,  matter  of  fact  shake,  and  dropped 
it.  It  was  very  awkward,  but  he  was  struggling 
with  an  overpowering  desire  to  take  her  in  his  arms 
and  kiss  her,  and  not  let  her  go  again  till  she  had 
said  she  would  marry  him.  It  was  exceedingly 
awkward,  for  he  knew  cjuite  well  that  if  he  did  so 
it  would  be  the  end  of  all  things. 

He  turned  rather  white,  and  thrust  his  hands  deep 
into  his  pockets.  "Yes,  the  plan  is  beautiful,"  he 
said  cheerfully,  "  but  very  unpractical.  And  the 
nature  that  made  it  is,  I  am  sure,  beautiful,  but  of 


256  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chai>. 

course  quite  as  unpractical  as  the  plan."  And  he 
smiled  down  at  her — a  broad,  genial  smile. 

"  I  know  I  don't  set  about  things  the  right  way," 
she  said.  "If  only  you  wouldn't  worry  about  the 
pasts  of  my  poor  friends  and  what  their  relations 
may  have  done  in  prehistoric  times,  you  could  help 
me  so  much." 

To  his  relief  she  began  to  walk  on  again. 
"  Princess  Ludwig  is  a  sensible  and  experienced 
woman,"  he  said,  "  and  can  help  you  in  many  ways 
that  I  cannot." 

"  But  she  only  looks  at  the  ■praktische  side  of  a 
question,  and  that  is  really  only  one  side.  I  am  too 
unpractical,  I  know,  but  she  isn't  unpractical  enough. 
But  I  don't  want  to  talk  about  her.  What  I  wanted 
to  say  was,  that  once  these  poor  ladies  have  been 
chosen  and  are  here,  the  time  for  making  inquiries  is 
over,  isn't  it.  As  far  as  I  am  concerned,  anyhow,  it 
is.  I  shall  never  forsake  them — never,  never.  So 
please  don't  try  to  tell  me  things  about  them — it 
doesn't  change  my  feelings  towards  them,  and  only 
makes  me  angry  with  you.  Which  is  a  pity.  I 
want  to  live  at  peace  with  my  neighbour." 

"  Well .?  "  he  said,  as  she  paused.  "  That,  I  take 
it,  is  a  prelude  to  something  else." 

*'  Yes,  it  is.     It's  a  prelude  to  Karlchen." 

"  To  Karlchen  }  " 

She  looked  at  him,  and  laughed  rather  nervously. 
"  I  am  afraid,"  she  said,  "  that  Karlchen  is  coming  to 
stay  with  me." 

"  And  who,  pray,  is  Karlchen  .^  " 

"  The  only  son  of  his  mother,  and  she  is  a  widow." 

He  came  to  a  standstill  again.  "What,"  he 
said,  "  Frau  von  Treumann  has  asked  you  to  invite 
her  son  to  Klein walde  }  " 


XIX  THE  BENEFACTRESS 


257 


*'  She  didn't  actually  ask,  but  she  got  a  sad  letter 
from  him,  and  seemed  to  feel  the  separation  so  much, 
and  cried  about  it,  and  so — and  so  I  did." 

Axel  was  silent. 

"  I  don't  yearn  to  see  Karlchen,"  said  Anna  in 
rather  a  small  voice.  She  could  not  help  feeling 
that  the  invitation  had  been  wrung  from  her. 

Axel  bored  a  hole  in  the  moss  with  his  stick,  and 
did  not  answer. 

"  But  naturally  his  poor  mother  clings  to  him, 
and  he  to  her." 

Axel  was  intent  on  his  hole,  and  did  not  answer. 

"They  are  all  the  world  to  each  other." 

Axel  filled  up  his  hole  again,  and  pressed  the  moss 
carefully  over  it  with  his  foot.  Then  he  said,  "  I 
never  yet  heard  of  two  Treumanns  being  all  the 
world  to  each  other." 

"  You  appear  to  have  a  down  on  the  Treumanns." 

"  Not  in  the  least.  I  do  not  think  they  interest 
me  enough.  It  is  an  East  Prussian  Junker  family 
that  has  spread  beyond  its  natural  limits,  and  one 
meets  them  everywhere,  and  knows  their  character- 
istics. What  is  this  young  man .''  I  do  not  re- 
member having  heard  of  him." 

"  He  is  an  officer  at  Rislar," 

"At  Rislar.^  Those  are  the  red  hussars.  Do 
you  wish  me  to  make  inquiries  about  him  ? " 

"  Oh  no.  It's  no  use.  His  mother  can't  be 
happy  without  him,  so  he  must  come." 

"  Then  may  I  ask  why,  if  I  am  not  to  help  you  in 
the  matter,  we  are  talking  about  him  at  all  ?  " 

"  I  wanted  to  ask  you  whether — whether  you 
think  he  will  come  often." 

"I  should  think,"  said  Axel  positively,  "that  he 
will  come  very  often  indeed." 

s 


258  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

"  Oh,"  said  Anna. 

They  walked  on  in  silence. 

"  Have  you  considered,"  he  said  presently,  "  what 
you  would  do  if  your  other — sisters  want  their 
relations  asked  down  to  stay  with  them  ^  Christmas, 
for  instance,  is  a  time  of  general  rejoicing,  when  the 
coldest  hearts  grow  warm.  Relations  who  have 
quarrelled  all  the  year,  seek  each  other  out  at 
Christmas  and  talk  tearfully  of  ties  of  blood.  And 
birthdays — will  your  twelve  sisters  be  content  to 
spend  their  twelve  birthdays  remote  from  all  members 
of  their  family  ?  Birthdays  here  are  important  days. 
There  will  be  one  a  month  now  for  you  to  celebrate 
at  Kleinwalde." 

"  I  have  not  got  farther  than  considering 
Karlchen,"  said  Anna  with  some  impatience. 

"A  male  Kuhriiuber,"  said  Axel  musingly,  swing- 
ing his  stick  and  gazing  up  at  the  fleecy  clouds  float- 
ing over  the  pine  tops, — "  a  male  Kuhrauber  would  be 
quite  unlike  anything  you  have  yet  seen." 

"  There  are  no  male  Kuhraubers,"  said  Anna. 
"At  least,"  she  added,  correcting  herself,  "  Fraulein 
Kuhrauber  said  so.  She  said  she  had  no  relations  at 
all,  but  perhaps — perhaps  she  has  forgotten  some,  and 
will  remember  them  by  and  by.  Oh,  I  wish  they 
would  tell  me  exactly  how  they  stand,  and  not  try  to 
hide  anything.  I  thought  we  had  left  nothing  un- 
explained    in    the    letters,    but    now    Karlchen — it 

seems "     She  stopped  and  bit  her  lip.     She  was 

actually  on  the  verge  of  criticising,  to  Axel,  the 
behaviour  of  her  sisters.  "  Look,"  she  said,  catching 
sight  of  red  roofs  through  the  thinning  trees,  "  isn't 
that  Lohm  ?  I  have  seen  you  home  without  know- 
ing it." 

She  held   out   her   hand.      "  It   isn't  much   good 


XIX  THE  BENEFACTRESS  259 

talking,  is  it  ? "  she  said,  moved  by  a  sudden  impulse, 
and  looking  up  at  him  with  a  slightly  wistful  smile. 
"  How  we  talk  and  talk  and  never  get  any  nearer 
anything  or  each  other.  Such  an  amount  of  explain- 
ing one's  self,  and  all  no  use.  I  don't  mean  you 
and  me  especially — it  is  always  so,  with  every  one  and 
everywhere.     It  is  very  weird.     Good-bye." 

But  he  held  her  hand  and  would  not  let  her  go. 
"No,"  he  said,  in  a  voice  she  did  not  know,  "wait 
one  moment.  Why  will  you  not  let  me  really  help 
you  }  Do  you  think  you  will  ever  achieve  anything 
by  shutting  your  eyes  to  what  is  true  ?  Is  it  not 
better  to  face  it,  and  then  to  do  one's  best — after 
that,  knowing  the  truth  ?  Why  are  you  angry  when- 
ever I  try  to  tell  you  the  truth,  or  what  I  believe  to 
be  the  truth,  about  these  ladies  ?  You  are  certain  to 
find  it  out  for  yourself  one  day.  You  force  me  to 
look  on  and  see  you  being  disappointed,  and  grieved, 
and  perhaps  cheated  —  anyhow  your  confidence 
abused — -and  you  reduce  our  talks  together  to  a  sort 
of    sparring    match    unworthy,    quite    unworthy    of 

either    of    us "     He    broke    off    abruptly    and 

released  her  hand.  The  passion  in  his  voice  was  un- 
mistakeable,  and  she  was  listening  with  astonished 
eyes.  "  I  am  lecturing  you,"  he  said  in  his  usual 
even  tones.  "  Forgive  me  for  thinking  that  you  are 
setting  about  your  plan  in  a  way  that  can  never  be 
successful.  As  you  say,  we  talk  and  talk,  and  the 
more  we  talk  the  less  do  we  understand  each  other. 
It  is  a  foolish  v/orld,  and  a  pre-eminently  lonely 
one. 

He  lifted  his  hat  and  turned  away.  Anna  opened 
her  lips  to  say  something,  but  he  was  gone. 

She  went  home  and  meditated  on  volcanoes. 


CHAPTER    XX 

The  May  that  year  in  Northern  Germany  was  the 
May  of  a  poet's  dream.  The  days  were  like  a  chain 
of  pearls,  increasing  in  beauty  and  preciousness  as  the 
chain  lengthened.  The  lilacs  flowered  a  fortnight 
earlier  than  in  other  years.  The  winds,  so  restless 
usually  on  those  flat  shores,  seemed  all  asleep,  and 
hardly  stirred.  About  the  middle  of  the  month  the 
moon  was  at  the  full,  and  the  forest  became  enchanted 
ground.  It  was  a  time  for  love  and  lovers,  for  vows 
and  kisses,  for  all  pretty,  happy,  hopeful  things. 
Only  those  farmers  who  were  too  old  to  love  and 
vow,  looked  at  their  rye  fields  and  grumbled  because 
there  was  no  rain. 

Karlchen,  arriving  on  the  first  Saturday  of  that 
blessed  month,  felt  all  disposed  to  love,  if  the 
Engldnderin  should  turn  out  to  be  in  the  least  degree 
lovable.  He  did  not  ask  much  of  a  young  woman 
with  a  fortune,  but  he  inwardly  prayed  that  she 
might  not  be  quite  so  ugly  as  wives  with  money 
sometimes  are.  He  was  a  man  used  to  having  what 
he  wanted,  and  had  spent  his  own  and  his  mother's 
money  in  getting  it.  There  was  a  little  bald  patch 
on  the  top  of  his  head,  and  there  were  many  debts  on 
his  mind,  and  he  was  nearing  the  critical  point  in 
an  officer's  career  the  turning  of  which  is  reserved 


CHAP.  XX       THE  BENEFACTRESS  261 

exclusively  for  the  efficient ;  and  so  he  had  three 
excellent  reasons  for  desiring  to  marry.  He  had 
desired  it,  indeed,  for  some  time,  had  attempted 
it  often,  and  had  not  achieved  it.  The  fathers 
of  wealthy  German  girls  knew  the  state  of  his 
finances  with  an  exactitude  that  was  unworthy  ;  and 
they  knew,  besides,  every  one  of  his  little  w^eaknesses. 
As  a  result,  they  gave  their  daughters  to  other 
suitors.  But  here  was  a  girl  without  a  father,  who 
knew  nothing  about  him  at  all.  There  was,  of 
course,  some  story  in  the  background  to  account  for 
her  living  in  this  way  ;  but  that  was  precisely  what 
would  make  her  glad  of  a  husband  who  would  relieve 
her  of  the  necessity  of  building  up  the  weaker  parts 
of  her  reputation  on  a  foundation  of  what  Karlchen, 
when  he  saw  the  inmates  of  the  house,  rudely 
stigmatised  as  alte  Schachteln.  Reputations,  he  re- 
flected, staring  at  Fraulein  Kuhrauber,  may  be  too 
dearly  bought.  Naturally  she  would  prefer  an  easy- 
going husband,  who  would  let  her  see  life  with  all  its 
fun,  to  this  dreary  and  aimless  existence. 

The  Treumanns,  he  thought,  were  in  luck.  What 
a  burden  his  mother  had  been  on  him  for  the  last  five 
years  !  Miss  Estcourt  had  relieved  him  of  it.  Now 
there  were  his  debts,  and  she  would  relieve  him  of 
those  ;  and  the  little  entanglement  she  must  have  had 
at  home  would  not  matter  in  Germany,  where  no  one 
knew  anything  about  her,  except  that  she  was  the 
highly  respectable  Joachim's  niece.  Anyway,  he  was 
perfectly  willing  to  let  bygones  be  bygones.  He  left 
his  bag  at  the  inn  at  Kleinwalde,  an  impossible  place 
as  he  noted  with  pleasure,  sent  away  his  Droschke^ 
and  walked  round  to  the  house  ;  but  he  did  not  see 
Anna.  She  kept  out  of  the  way  till  the  evening,  and 
he   had   ample   time   to   be   happy  with  his  mother. 


262  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

When  he  did  see  her,  he  fell  in  love  with  her  at  once. 
He  had  quite  a  simple  nature,  composed  wholly  of 
instincts,  and  fell  in  love  with  an  ease  acquired  by- 
long  practice.  Anna's  face  and  figure  were  far 
prettier  than  he  had  dared  to  hope.  She  was  a 
beauty,  he  told  himself  with  much  satisfaction.  Truly 
the  Treumanns  were  in  luck.  He  entirely  forgot  the 
role  he  was  to  play  of  loving  son,  and  devoted  him- 
self, with  his  habitual  artlessness,  to  her.  Indeed,  if 
he  had  not  forgotten  it,  he  and  his  mother  were  so 
little  accustomed  to  displays  of  affection  that  they 
would  have  been  but  clumsy  actors.  There  is  a  great 
difference  between  affectionate  letters  written  quietly 
in  one's  room,  and  affectionate  conversation  that  has 
to  sound  as  though  it  welled  up  from  one's  heart. 
Nothing  of  the  kind  ever  welled  up  from  Karlchen's 
heart  ;  and  Anna  noticed  at  once  that  there  were  no 
signs  of  unusual  attachment  between  mother  and  son. 
Karlchen  was  not  even  commonly  polite  to  his  mother, 
nor  did  she  seem  to  expect  him  to  be.  When  she 
dropped  her  scissors,  she  had  to  pick  them  up  for 
herself.  When  she  lost  her  thimble,  she  hunted  for 
it  alone.  When  she  wanted  a  footstool,  she  got  up 
and  fetched  one  from  under  his  very  nose.  When 
she  came  into  the  room  and  looked  about  for  a  chair, 
it  was  Letty  who  offered  her  hers.  Karlchen  sat 
comfortably  with  his  legs  crossed,  playing  with  the 
paper-knife  he  had  taken  out  of  the  book  Anna  had 
been  reading,  and  making  himself  pleasant.  He  had 
his  mother's  large  black  eyes,  and  very  long  thick  black 
eyelashes  of  which  he  was  proud,  conscious  that  they 
rested  becomingly  on  his  cheeks  when  he  looked  down 
at  the  paper-knife.  Letty  was  greatly  struck  by 
them,  and  inquired  of  Miss  Leech  in  a  whisper 
whether  she  had  ever  seen  their  like. 


XX  THE  BENEFACTRESS  263 

"  Mr.  Jessup  had  silken  eyelashes  too,"  replied 
Miss  Leech  dreamily. 

"These  aren't  silk — they're  cotton  eyelashes," 
said  Letty  scornfully. 

"  My  dear  Letty,"  murmured  Miss  Leech. 

Anna  was  at  a  disadvantage  because  of  her  imper- 
fect German.  She  could  not  repress  Karlchen  when 
he  was  unduly  kind  as  she  would  have  done  in 
English,  and  with  his  mother  presiding,  as  it  were, 
at  their  opening  friendship,  she  did  not  like  to  begin 
by  looking  lofty.  Luckily  the  princess  was  unusally 
chatty  that  evening.  She  sat  next  to  Karlchen,  and 
continually  joined  in  the  talk.  She  was  cheerful 
amiability  itself,  and  insisted  upon  being  told  all  about 
those  sons  of  her  acquaintances  who  were  in  his 
regiment.  When  he  half  turned  his  back  on  her 
and  dropped  his  voice  to  a  rapid  undertone,  thereby 
making  himself  completely  incomprehensible  to  Anna, 
the  princess  pleasantly  advised  him  to  speak  very 
slowly  and  distinctly,  for  unless  he  did  Miss  Estcourt 
would  certainly  not  understand.  In  a  word,  she 
took  him  under  her  wing  whether  he  would  or  no, 
and  persisted  in  her  friendliness  in  spite  of  his 
mother's  increasingly  desperate  efforts  to  draw  her 
into  conversation. 

"Why  do  we  not  go  out,  dear  Anna.?"  cried 
Frau  von  Treumann  at  last,  unable  to  endure  Princess 
Ludwig's  behaviour  any  longer.  "  Look  what  a  fine 
evening  it  is — and  quite  warm."  And  she  who  till 
then  had  gone  about  shutting  windows,  and  had 
been  unable  to  bear  the  least  breath  of  air,  herself 
opened  the  glass  doors  leading  into  the  garden  and 
went  out. 

But  although  they  all  followed  her,  nothing  was 
gained  by  it.     She  could  have  stamped  her  foot  with 


264  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

rage  at  the  princess's  conduct.  Here  was  every- 
thing needful  for  the  beginning  of  a  successful 
courtship — starlight,  a  mumuring  sea,  warm  air, 
fragrant  bushes,  a  girl  who  looked  like  Love  itself 
in  the  dusk  in  her  pale  beauty,  a  young  man  desiring 
nothing  better  than  to  be  allowed  to  love  her,  and  a 
mother  only  waiting  to  bless.  But  here  too,  un- 
fortunately, was  the  princess. 

She  was  quite  appallingly  sociable  —  "The  spite 
of  the  woman  !  "  thought  Frau  von  Treumann,  for 
what  could  it  matter  to  her  ^ — and  remained  fixed 
at  Anna's  side  as  they  paced  slowly  up  and  down 
the  grass,  monopolising  Karlchen's  attention  with 
her  absurd  questions  about  his  brother  officers. 
Anna  walked  between  them,  thinking  of  other 
things,  holding  up  her  trailing  white  dress  with  one 
hand,  and  with  the  other  the  edges  of  her  blue  cloak 
together  at  her  neck.  She  was  half  a  head  taller 
than  Karlchen,  and  so  was  his  mother  who  walked 
on  his  other  side.  Karlchen,  becoming  more  and 
more  enamoured  the  longer  he  walked,  looked  up  at 
her  through  his  eyelashes  and  told  himself  that  the 
Treumanns  were  certainly  in  luck,  for  he  had 
stumbled,  on  a  goddess. 

"The  grass  is  damp,"  cried  Frau  von  Treumann, 
interrupting  the  endless  questions.  "  My  dear 
princess — your  rheumatism — and  I  who  so  easily 
get  colds.  Come,  we  will  go  off  the  grass — we  are 
not  young  enough  to  risk  wet  feet." 

"  I  do  not  feel  it,"  said  the  princess,  "  I  have 
thick  shoes.  But  you,  dear  Frau  von  Treumann,  do 
not  stay  if  you  have  fears." 

"  It  is  damp,"  said  Anna,  turning  up  the  sole  of 
her  shoe.      "  Shall  we  go  on  to  the  path  ?  " 

On  the  path  it  was  obvious  that  they  must  walk 


XX  THE  BENEFACTRESS  265 

in  couples.  Arrived  at  its  edge,  the  princess  stopped 
and  looked  round  with  an  urbane  smile.  "  My  dear 
child,"  she  said  to  Anna,  taking  her  arm,  "we  have 
been  keeping  Herr  von  Treumann  from  his  mother 
regardless  of  his  feelings.  I  beg  you  to  pardon  my 
thoughtlessness,"  she  added,  turning  to  him,  "  but 
my  interest  in  hearing  of  my  old  friends'  sons  has 
made  me  quite  forget  that  you  took  this  long 
journey  to  be  with  your  dear  mother.  We  will  not 
interrupt  you  further.     Come,  my  dear,  I  wanted  to 

ask  you "     And  she  led  Anna  away,  dropping 

her  voice  to  a  confidential  questioning  concerning 
the  engaging  of  a  new  cook. 

There  was  nothing  to  be  done.  The  only  crumb 
of  comfort  Karlchen  obtained — but  it  was  a  big  one 
— was  a  reluctantly  given  invitation,  on  his  mother's 
vividly  describing  at  the  hour  of  parting  the  place 
where  he  was  to  spend  the  night,  to  remove  his 
luggage  from  the  inn  to  Anna's  house,  and  to  sleep 
there. 

"  You  are  too  good,  meine  Gnddigste^''  he  said, 
consoled  by  this  for  the  tete-a-tete  he  had  just  had 
with  his  mother  ;  "but  if  it  in  any  way  inconveniences 
you — we  soldiers  are  used  to  roughing  it " 

"But  not  like  that,  not  like  that,  lieber  Junge,''' 
interrupted  his  mother  anxiously.  "  It  is  not  fit  for 
a  dog,  that  inn,  and  I  heard  this  very  evening  from 
the  housemaid  that  one  of  the  children  there  has  the 
measles." 

That  quite  settled  it.  Anna  could  not  expose 
Karlchen  to  measles.  Why  did  he  not  stay,  as  he 
had  written  he  would,  at  Stralsund  ?  As  he  was 
here,  however,  she  could  not  let  him  fall  a  prey  to 
measles,  and  she  asked  the  princess  to  order  a  room 
to  be  got  ready. 


266  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

It  is  a  proof  of  her  solemnity  on  that  first  evening 
with  Karlchen  that  when  his  mother,  praising  her 
beauty,  mentioned  her  dimples  as  specially  bewitching, 
he  should  have  said,  surprised,  "What  dimples?" 

It  is  a  proof,  too,  of  the  duplicity  of  mothers, 
that  the  very  next  day  in  church  the  princess,  sitting 
opposite  the  innkeeper's  rosy  family,  and  counting 
its  members  between  the  verses  of  the  hymn,  should 
have  found  that  not  one  was  missing. 

Karlchen  left  on  Sunday  evening  after  a  not  very 
successful  visit.  He  had  been  to  church,  believing 
that  it  was  expected  of  him,  and  had  found  to  his 
disgust  that  Anna  had  gone  for  a  walk.  So  there  he 
sat,  between  his  mother  and  Princess  Ludwig,  and 
extracted  what  consolation  he  could  from  a  studied 
neglect  of  the  outer  forms  of  worship  and  an  elaborate 
slumber  during  the  sermon. 

The  morning,  then,  was  wasted.  At  luncheon 
Anna  was  unapproachable.  Karlchen  was  invited  to 
sit  next  to  his  mother,  and  Anna  was  protected  by 
Letty  on  the  one  hand  and  Fraulein  Kuhrauber  on 
the  other,  and  she  talked  the  whole  time  to  Fraulein 
Kuhrauber. 

"  Who  is  Fraulein  Kuhrauber  ? "  he  inquired 
irritably  of  his  mother,  when  they  found  themselves 
alone  together  again  in  the  afternoon. 

"  Well,  you  can  see  who  she  is,  I  should  think," 
replied  his  mother  equally  irritably.  "  She  is  just 
Fraulein  Kuhrauber,  and  nothing  more." 

"  Anna  talks  to  her  more  than  to  any  one,"  he 
said  ;  she  was  already  Anna  to  him,  /<?«/  court. 

*'  Yes.      It  is  disgusting." 

"  It  is  very  disgusting.  It  is  not  right  that 
Treumanns  should  be  forced  to  associate  on  equal 
terms  with  such  a  person." 


XX  THE  BENEFACTRESS  267 

*'  It  is  scandalous.     But  you  will  change  all  that." 

Karlchen  twisted  up  the  ends  of  his  moustache 
and  looked  down  his  nose.  He  often  looked  down 
his  nose  because  of  his  eyelashes.  He  began  to  hum 
a  tune,  and  felt  happy  again.  Axel  Lohm  was  right 
when  he  doubted  whether  there  had  ever  been  a 
permanently  crushed  Treumann. 

"  She  has  a  strange  assortment  of  alte  Schachteln 
here,"  he  said,  after  a  pause  during  which  his 
thoughts  were  rosy.  "  That  Elmreich,  now.  What 
relation  does  she  say  she  is  to  Arthur  Elmreich .?  " 

"  The  man  who  shot  himself.^  Oh,  she  is  no 
relation  at  all.     At  most  a  distant  cousin." 

"  Na^  na,"  was  Karlchen's  reply  ;  a  reply  whose 
English  equivalent  would  be  a  profoundly  sceptical 
wink. 

His    mother    looked   at   him,  waiting   for    more. 

"  What,  do  you  really  think .^  "  she  began,  and 

then  stopped. 

He  stood  before  the  glass  readjusting  his 
moustache  into  the  regulation  truculent  upward 
twist.  "Think?"  he  said.  "You  know  Arthur's 
sister  Lolli  was  engaged  at  the  Wintergarten  this 
winter.  She  was  not  much  of  a  success.  Too  old. 
But  she  was  down  on  the  bills  as  Baroness  Elmreich, 
and  people  went  to  see  her  because  of  that,  and 
because  of  her  brother." 

"  Oh — terrible,"  murmured  Frau  von  Treumann. 

"  Well,  I  know  her  ;  and  I  shall  ask  her  next 
time  I  see  her  if  she  has  a  sister." 

"  But  this  one  has  no  relations  living  at  all,"  said 
his  mother,  horrified  at  the  bare  suggestion  that 
Lolli  was  the  sister  of  a  person  with  whom  she  ate 
her  dinner  every  day. 

"  Na^  na^'  said  Karlchen. 


268  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

"  But  my  dear  Karlchen,  it  is  so  unlikely — the 
baroness  is  the  veriest  pattern  of  primness.  She 
has  such  very  strict  views  about  all  such  things — 
quite  absurdly  strict.  She  even  had  doubts,  she  told 
me,  when  first  she  came  here,  as  to  whether  Anna  were 
a  fit  companion  for  her." 

Karlchen  stopped  twisting  his  moustache,  and 
stared  at  his  mother.  Then  he  threw  back  his  head 
and  shrieked  with  laughter.  He  laughed  so  much 
that  for  some  moments  he  could  not  speak.  His 
mother's  face,  as  she  watched  him  without  a  smile, 
made  him  laugh  still  more.  '■'■  Liebste  Mama^''  he 
said  at  last,  wiping  his  eyes,  "it  may  of  course  not 
be  true.  It  is  just  possible  that  it  is  not.  But  I  feel 
sure  it  is  true,  for  this  Elmreich  and  the  little  Lolli 
are  as  alike  as  two  peas.  Anna  not  a  fit  companion 
for  Lolli's  sister!  Ach  Gctt,  ach  GottT'  And  he 
shrieked  again. 

"  If  it  is  true,"  said  Frau  von  Treumann  drawing 
herself  up  to  her  full  height,  "it  is  my  duty  to  tell 
Anna.  I  cannot  stay  under  the  same  roof  with  such 
a  woman.     She  must  go." 

"  Take  care,"  said  her  son,  illumined  by  an  un- 
accustomed ray  of  sapience,  "  take  care,  Mutti.  It 
is  not  certain  that  Anna  would  send  her  away." 

"  What !  if  she  knew  about  this — this  Lolli,  as 
you  call  her  .^  " 

Karlchen  shook  his  head.  "  It  is  better  not  to 
begin  with  ultimatums,"  he  said  sagely.  "  If  you 
say  you  cannot  stay  under  the  same  roof  with  the 
Elmreich,  and  she  does  not  after  that  go,  why  then 
you  must.  And  that,"  he  added,  looking  alarmed, 
"  would  be  disastrous.  No,  no  ;  leave  it  alone.  In 
any  case  leave  it  alone  till  I  have  seen  Lolli.  I  shall 
come  down  soon  again,  you  may  be  sure.     I  wish  we 


XX  THE  BENEFACTRESS  269 

could  get  rid  of  the  Penheim.     Now  that  really  would 
be  a  good  thing.     Think  it  over." 

But  Frau  von  Treumann  felt  that  by  no  amount 
of  thinking  it  over  would  they  ever  get  rid  of  the 
Penheim. 

"  You  do  not  like  my  Karlchen  ? "  she  said  plain- 
tively to  Anna  that  evening,  coming  out  into  the 
dusky  garden  where  she  stood  looking  at  the  stars. 
Karlchen  was  well  on  his  way  to  Berlin  by  that 
time. 

"  I  am  sure  I  should  like  him  very  much  if  I  knew 
him,"  replied  Anna,  putting  all  the  heartiness  she 
could  muster  into  her  voice. 

Frau  von  Treumann  shook  her  head  sadly.  "But 
now  ?  I  see  you  do  not  like  him  now.  You  hardly 
spoke  to  him.  He  was  hurt.  A  mother," — "  Oh," 
thought  Anna,  "  I  am  tired  of  mothers," — "  a  mother 
always  knows." 

Her  handkerchief  came  out.  She  had  put  one 
hand  through  Anna's  arm,  and  with  the  other  began 
to  wipe  her  eyes.     Anna  watched  her  in  silence. 

"What.^  What.?  Tears.?  Do  I  see  tears  .?  Are 
we  then  missing  our  son  so  much.?"  exclaimed  a 
cheery  voice  behind  them.  And  there  was  the 
princess  again. 

"  Serpent,"  thought  Frau  von  Treumann  ;  but 
what  is  the  use  of  thinking  serpent  .?  She  had  to 
submit  to  being  consoled  all  the  same,  while  Anna 
walked  away. 


CHAPTER   XXI 

Anna  seemed  always  to  be  walking  away  during  the 
days  that  separated  Karlchen's  first  visit  from  his 
second.  Frau  von  Treumann  noticed  it  with  some 
uneasiness,  and  hoped  that  it  was  only  her  fancy. 
The  girl  had  shown  herself  possessed  of  such  an 
abnormally  large  and  warm  heart  at  first,  had  been 
so  eager  in  her  offers  of  affection,  so  enthusiastic,  so 
sympathetic,  so — well,  absurd  :  Was  it  possible  that 
there  was  no  warmth  and  no  affection  left  over  from 
those  vast  stores  for  such  a  good-looking,  agreeable 
man  as  Karlchen  ?  But  she  set  such  thoughts  aside 
as  ridiculous.  Her  son's  simple  doctrine  from  his 
fourteenth  year  on  had  been  that  all  girls  like  all 
men.  It  had  often  been  laid  down  by  him  in  their 
talks  together,  and  her  own  experience  of  girls  had 
sufficiently  proved  its  soundness.  "The  Penheim 
must  have  poisoned  her  mind  against  him,"  she 
decided  ^  at  last,  unable  otherwise  to  explain  the 
apathy  with  which  Anna  received  any  news  of 
Karlchen.  Was  there  ever  such  sheer  spite  ?  For 
what  could  it  matter  to  a  woman  with  no  son  of  her 
own  who  married  Anna.^  Somebody  would  marry 
her,  for  certain,  and  the  Penheim  would  lose  her 
place  :  then  why  should  it  not  be  Karlchen  ? 

The  princess,  however,  most  innocent  of  excellent 


CHAP.  XXI      THE  BENEFACTRESS  271 

women,  had  never  spoken  privately  to  Anna  of 
Karlchen  except  once,  when  she  inquired  whether  he 
were  to  have  the  best  sheets  on  his  bed,  or  the  second 
best  sheets  ;  and  Anna  had  repHed,  "The  worst." 

But  if  Frau  von  Treumann  was  uneasy  about 
Anna,  Anna  was  still  more  uneasy  about  Frau  von 
Treumann.  Whenever  she  could,  she  went  away 
into  the  forest  and  tried  to  think  things  out.  She 
objected  very  much  to  the  feeling  that  life  seemed 
somehow  to  be  thickening  round  her — yet,  after 
Karlchen's  visit  there  it  was.  Each  day  there  were 
fewer  and  fewer  quiet  pauses  in  the  trivial  bustle  of 
existence  ;  clear  moments,  like  windov/s  through 
which  she  caught  glimpses  of  the  serene  tranquillity 
with  which  the  real  day,  nature's  day,  the  day  she 
ought  to  have  had,  was  passing.  Frau  von  Treumann 
followed  her  about  and  talked  to  her  of  Karlchen. 
Fraulein  Kuhrauber  followed  her  about,  with  a 
humble,  dog- like  affection,  and  seemed  to  want 
to  tell  her  something,  and  never  got  further  than 
dark  utterances  that  perplexed  her.  Baroness 
Elmreich  repulsed  all  her  advances,  carefully  called 
her  Miss  Estcourt,  and  made  acid  comments  on 
everything  that  was  said  and  done.  "  I  believe  she 
dislikes  me,"  thought  Anna,  puzzled.  "  I  wonder 
why  ?  "  The  baroness  did  ;  and  the  reason  was  sim- 
plicity itself.  She  disliked  her  because  she  was 
younger,  prettier,  richer,  healthier  than  herself.  For 
this  she  disliked  her  heartily  ;  but  with  far  greater 
heartiness  did  she  dislike  her  because  she  knew  she 
ought  to  be  grateful  to  her.  The  baroness  detested 
having  to  feel  grateful — it  is  a  detestation  not  confined 
to  baronesses — and  in  this  case  the  burden  of  the 
obligations  she  was  under  was  so  great  that  it  was 
almost   past  endurance.     And  there  was  no  escape. 


272  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

She  had  been  starving  when  Anna  took  her  in,  and 
she  would  starve  again  if  Anna  turned  her  out.  She 
owed  her  everything  ;  and  what  more  natural,  then, 
than  to  dislike  her  ?  The  rarest  of  loves  is  the  love 
of  a  debtor  for  his  creditor. 

At  night,  alone  in  her  room,  Anna  would  wonder 
at  the  day  lived  through,  at  the  unsatisfactoriness  of 
it,  and  the  emptiness.  When  were  they  going  to 
begin  the  better  life,  the  soul  to  soul  life  she  was 
waiting  for  ?  How  busy  they  had  all  been,  and  what 
had  they  done .?  Why,  nothing.  A  little  aimless 
talking,  a  little  aimless  sewing,  a  little  aimless  walk- 
ing about,  a  few  letters  to  write  that  need  not  have 
been  written,  a  newspaper  to  glance  into  that  did  not 
really  interest  anybody,  meals  in  rapid  succession, 
night,  and  oblivion.  That  was  what  was  on  the 
surface.  What  was  beneath  the  surface  she  could 
only  guess  at ;  for  after  a  whole  fortnight  with  the 
Chosen  she  was  still  confronted  solely  by  surfaces. 
In  the  hot  forest,  drowsy  and  aromatic,  where  the 
white  butterflies,  like  points  of  light  among  the 
shadows  of  the  pine-trunks,  fluttered  up  and  down 
the  unending  avenues  all  day  long,  she  wandered, 
during  the  afternoon  hour  when  the  Chosen  napped, 
to  the  most  out-of-the-way  nooks  she  could  find  ; 
and  sitting  on  the  moss  where  she  could  see  some 
special  bit  of  loveliness,  some  distant  radiant  meadow 
in  the  sunlight  beyond  the  trees,  some  bush  with  its 
delicate  green  shower  of  budding  leaves  at  the  foot 
of  a  giant  pine,  some  exquisite  effect  of  blue  and 
white  between  the  branches  so  far  above  her  head, 
she  would  ponder  and  ponder  till  she  was  weary. 

There  was  no  mistaking  KarJchen's  looks  ;  she 
had  not  been  a  pretty  girl  for  several  seasons  at  home 
in  vain.     Karlchen   meant  to   marry   her.      She,  of 


xxr  THE  BENEFACTRESS  273 

course,  did  not  mean  to  marry  Karlchen,  but  that 
did  not  smooth  any  of  the  ruggedness  out  of  the 
path  she  saw  opening  before  her.  She  would  have  to 
endure  the  prehminary  blandishments  of  the  wooing, 
and  when  the  wooing  itself  had  reached  the  state  of 
ripeness  which  would  enable  her  to  let  him  know 
plainly  her  own  intentions,  there  would  be  a  grievous 
number  of  scenes  to  be  gone  through  with  his  mother. 
And  then  his  mother  would  shake  the  Kleinwalde 
dust  from  her  offended  feet  and  go,  and  failure 
number  one  would  be  upon  her.  In  the  innermost 
recesses  of  her  heart,  offensive  as  Karlchen's  wooing 
would  certainly  be,  she  thought  that  once  it  was  over 
it  would  not  have  been  a  bad  thing  ;  for,  since  his 
visit,  it  was  clear  that  Frau  von  Treumann  was  not 
the  sort  of  inmate  she  had  dreamed  of  for  her  home 
for  the  unhappy.  Unhappy  she  had  undoubtedly 
been,  poor  thing,  but  happy  with  Anna  she  would 
never  be.  She  had  forgiven  the  first  fibs  the  poor 
lady  had  told  her,  but  she  could  not  go  on  forgiving 
fibs  for  ever.  All  those  elaborate  untruths,  written 
and  spoken,  about  Karlchen's  visit,  how  dreadful 
they  were.  Surely,  thought  Anna,  truthfulness  was 
not  only  a  lovely  and  a  pleasant  thing,  but  it  was 
absolutely  indispensable  as  the  basis  to  a  real  friend- 
ship. How  could  any  soul  approach  another  soul 
through  a  network  of  lies  ?  And  then  more  painful 
still — she  confessed  with  shame  that  it  was  more 
painful  to  her  even  than  the  lies — Frau  von  Treumann 
evidently  took  her  for  a  fool.  Not  merely  for  a 
person  wanting  in  intelligence,  or  slow-witted,  but 
for  a  downright  fool.  She  must  think  so,  or  she 
would  have  taken  more  pains,  at  least  some  pains,  to 
make  her  schemes  a  little  less  transparent.  Anna 
hated    herself   for    feeling    mortified    by    this ;     but 

T 


274  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

mortified  she  certainly  was.  Even  a  philosopher 
does  not  like  to  be  honestly  mistaken  during  an 
entire  fortnight  for  a  fool.  Though  he  may  smile, 
he  will  almost  surely  wince.  Not  being  a  philosopher, 
Anna  winced  and  did  not  smile. 

"  I  think,"  she  said  to  Manske,  when  he  came  in 
one  morning  with  a  list  of  selected  applications,- — "  I 
think  we  will  wait  a  little  before  choosing  the  other 
nine." 

"  The  gracious  one  is  not  weary  of  well-doing  ? " 
he  asked  quickly. 

"  Oh  no,  not  at  all  ;  I  like  well-doing,"  Anna 
said  rather  lamely,  "  but  it  is  not  quite — not  quite  as 
simple  as  it  looks." 

"  I  have  found  nine  most  deserving  cases,"  he 
urged,  "  and  later  there  may  not  be •" 

"  No,  no,"  interrupted  Anna  ;  "we  will  wait.  In 
the  autumn,  perhaps — not  now.  First  I  must  make 
the  ones  who  are  here  happy.  You  know,"  she  said, 
smiling,  "  they  came  here  to  be  made  happy." 

"  Yes,  truly  I  know  it.  And  happy  indeed  must 
they  be  in  this  home,  surrounded  by  all  that  makes 
life  fair  and  desirable." 

'*  One  would  think  so,"  said  Anna,  musing.  "  It 
is  pretty  here,  isn't  it — it  should  be  easy  to  be  happy 
here,— yet  I  am  not  sure  that  they  are." 

"  Not  sure ?  "  Manske  looked  at  her,  startled. 

*'  What  do  people — most  people,  ordinary  people, 
need,  to  make  them  happy.?"  she  asked  wistfully. 
She  was  speaking  to  herself  more  than  to  him,  and 
did  not  expect  any  very  illuminating  answer. 

"  The  fear  of  the  Lord,"  he  replied  promptly  ; 
which  put  an  end  to  the  conversation. 

But  besides  her  perplexities  about  the  Chosen, 
Anna  had  other  worries.     Dellwig  had  received  the 


XXI  THE  BENEFACTRESS  275 

refusal  to  let  him  build  the  brick-kiln  with  such 
insolence,  and  had,  in  his  anger,  said  such  extraordinary 
things  about  Axel  Lohm,  that  Anna  had  blazed  out 
too,  and  had  told  him  he  must  go.  It  had  been  an 
unpleasant  scene,  and  she  had  come  out  from  it  white 
and  trembling.  She  had  intended  to  ask  Axel  to  do 
the  dismissing  for  her  if  she  should  ever  definitely 
decide  to  send  him  away  ;  but  she  had  been  over- 
whelmed by  a  sudden  passion  of  wrath  at  the  man's 
intolerable  insinuations  —  only  half  understood,  but 
sounding  for  that  reason  worse  than  they  were — and 
had  done  it  herself.  Since  then  she  had  not  seen  him. 
By  the  agreement  her  uncle  had  made  with  him,  he 
was  entitled  to  six  months'  notice,  and  would  not 
leave  until  the  winter,  and  she  knew  she  could  not 
continue  to  refuse  to  see  him  ;  but  how  she  dreaded 
the  next  interview  !  And  how  uneasy  she  felt  at  the 
thought  that  the  management  of  her  estate  was 
entirely  in  the  hands  of  a  man  who  must  now  be  her 
enemy.  Axel  was  equally  anxious  when  he  heard 
what  she  had  done.  It  had  to  be  done,  of  course  ; 
but  he  did  not  like  Dellwig's  looks  when  he  met  him. 
He  asked  Anna  to  allow  him  to  ride  round  her  place 
as  often  as  he  could,  and  she  was  grateful  to  him,  for 
she  knew  that  not  only  her  own  existence,  but  the 
existence  of  her  poor  friends  depended  on  the  right 
cultivation  of  Kleinwalde.  And  she  was  so  helpless. 
What  creature  on  earth  could  be  more  helpless  than 
an  English  girl  in  her  position  ?  She  left  off  reading 
Maeterlinck,  borrowed  books  on  farming  from  Axel, 
and  eagerly  studied  them,  learning  by  heart  before 
breakfast  long  pages  concerning  the  peculiarities  of 
her  two  chief  products,  potatoes  and  pigs. 

"  He  cannot  do  much  harm,"  Axel  assured  her  ; 
"  the  potatoes,  I  see,  are  all  in,  and  what  can  he  do 


276  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

to  the  pigs?  His  own  vanity  would  prevent  his 
leaving  the  place  in  a  bad  state.  I  have  heard  of  a 
good  man — shall  I  have  him  down  and  interview  him 
for  you  ^ " 

"  How  kind  you  are,"  said  Anna  gratefully  ; 
indeed  he  seemed  to  her  to  be  a  tower  of  strength. 

"  Any  one  would  do  what  they  could  to  help  a 
forlorn  young  lady  in  the  straits  you  are  in,"  he  said, 
smiling  at  her. 

"  I  don't  feel  like  a  forlorn  young  lady  with  you 
next  door  to  help  me  out  of  the  difficulties." 

"  People  in  these  lonely  country  places  learn  to 
be  neighbourly,"  he  replied  in  his  most  measured 
tones. 

He  had  not  again  spoken  of  the  Chosen  since  his 
walk  with  her  through  the  forest ;  and  though  he 
knew  that  Karlchen  had  been  and  gone  he  did  not 
mention  his  name.  Nor  did  Anna.  The  longer 
she  lived  with  her  sisters  the  less  did  she  care  to  talk 
about  them,  especially  to  Axel.  As  for  Frau  von 
Treumann's  plans,  how  could  she  ever  tell  him  of 
those  .'' 

And  just  then  Letty,  the  only  being  who  was 
really  satisfactory,  became  a  cause  to  her  of  fresh 
perplexity.  Letty  had  been  strangely  content  with 
her  German  lessons  from  Herr  Klutz.  Every  day 
she  and  Miss  Leech  set  out  without  a  murmur,  and 
came  back  looking  placid.  They  brought  back  little 
offerings  from  the  parsonage,  a  bunch  of  narcissus, 
the  first  lilac,  cakes  baked  by  Frau  Manske,  always 
something.  Anna  took  the  flowers,  and  ate  the 
cakes,  and  sent  pleased  messages  in  return.  If  she 
had  been  less  preoccupied  by  Dellwig  and  the 
eccentricities  of  her  three  new  friends,  she  would 
certainly  have  been  struck  by  Letty's  silence  about 


XXI  THE  BENEFACTRESS  277 

her  lessons,  and  would  have  questioned  her.  There 
was  no  grumbling  after  the  first  day,  and  no  abuse  of 
Schiller  and  the  muses.  Once  Anna  met  Klutz 
walking  through  Kleinwalde,  and  asked  him  how  the 
studies  were  progressing.  "  Colossal,"  was  the  reply — 
"the  progress  made  is  colossal."  And  he  crushed 
her  rings  into  her  fingers  when  she  gave  him  her  hand 
to  shake,  and  blushed,  and  looked  at  her  with  eyes 
that  he  felt  must  burn  into  her  soul.  But  Anna 
noticed  neither  his  eyes  nor  his  blush  ;  for  his  eyes, 
whatever  he  might  feel  them  to  be  doing,  were  not 
the  kind  that  burn  into  souls,  and  he  was  a  pale 
young  man  who,  when  he  blushed,  did  it  only  in  his 
cars.  They  certainly  turned  crimson  as  he  crushed 
Anna's  fingers,  but  she  was  not  thinking  of  his  ears. 

"  Frau  Manske  is  too  kind,"  she  said,  as  the 
nosegays,  at  first  intermittent,  became  things  of  daily 
occurrence.  They  grew  bigger,  too,  every  day, 
attaining  such  a  girth  at  last  that  Letty  could  hardly 
carry  them.  *'  She  must  not  plunder  her  garden  like 
this." 

"  It  is  very  full  of  flowers,"  said  Miss  Leech. 
"  Really  a  wonderful  display.  The  bunch  is  always 
ready,  tied  together  and  lying  on  the  table  when  we 
arrive.  I  tried  to  tell  her  yesterday  that  you  were 
afraid  she  was  spoiling  her  garden,  sending  so  much, 
but  she  did  not  seem  to  understand.  She  is  showing 
me  how  to  make  those  cakes  you  said  you  liked." 

"I  wish  I  had  some  of  these  in  my  garden,"  said 
Anna,  laying  her  cheek  against  the  posy  of  wallflowers 
Letty  had  just  given  her.  There  was  nothing  in  her 
garden  except  grass  and  trees  ;  Uncle  Joachim  had 
not  been  a  man  of  flowers, 

She  took  them  up  to  her  room,  kissing  them  on 
the  way,  and  put  them  in  a  jar  on  the  window-sill  ; 


278  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

and  it  was  not  until  two  or  three  days  later,  when 
they  began  to  fade,  that  she  saw  the  corner  of  an 
envelope  peeping  out  from  among  them.  She  pulled 
it  out  and  opened  it.  It  was  addressed  to  Ihr  Hoch- 
ivohlgeboren  Frdulein  Anna  Estcourt ;  and  inside 
was  a  sheet  of  notepaper  with  a  large  red  heart 
painted  on  it,  mangled,  and  pierced  by  an  arrow  ;  and 
below  it  the  following  poem  in  a  cramped,  hardly 
readable  writing  : — 

The  earth  am  I,  and  thou  the  heaven. 
The  mass  am  I,  and  thou  the  leaven. 

No  other  heaven  do  I  want  but  thee, 
Oh  Anna,  Anna,  Anna,  pity  me  ! 

August  Klutz,  Kandidat. 

In  an  instant  Letty's  unnatural  cheerfulness  about  her 
lessons  flashed  across  her.  IVhai  had  they  been 
doing,  and  where  was  Miss  Leech,  that  such  things 
could  happen  } 

It  was  a  very  terrible,  stern-browed  aunt  who  met 
Letty  that  day  on  the  stairs  when  she  came  home. 

'*  Hullo,  Aunt  Anna,  seen  a  ghost  ^ "  Letty 
inquired  pleasantly  ;  but  her  heart  sank  into  her 
boots  all  the  same  as  she  followed  her  into  her  room. 

"  Look,"  said  Anna,  showing  her  the  paper,  "  how 
could  you  do  it .''  For  of  course  you  did  it.  Herr 
Klutz  doesn't  speak  English." 

"  Doesn't  he  though — he  gets  on  like  anything. 
He  sits  up  all  night " 

"How  is  it  that  ihis  was  possible  .^ "  interrupted 
Anna,  striking  the  paper  with  her  hand. 

"  It's  pretty,  isn't  it,"  said  Letty,  faintly  grinning. 
"  The  last  line  had  to  be  changed  a  little.  It  isn't 
original,  you  know,  except  the  Annas.  I  put  in 
those.  That  footman  mother  got  cheap  because  he 
had  one  finger  too  few  sent  it  to  Hilton  on  her  birth- 


XXI  THE  BENEFACTRESS  279 

day  last  year — she  liked  it  awfully.  The  last  line 
was  '  Oh  Hilton,  Hilton,  Hilton '  " 

*'  How  came  you  to  talk  such  hideous  nonsense 
with  Herr  Klutz,  and  about  me?  " 

"  I  didn't.  He  began.  He  talked  about  you  the 
whole  time,  and  started  doing  it  the  very  first  day 
Leechy  cooked." 

"Cooked?" 

"  She  is  always  in  the  kitchen  with  Frau  Manske. 
We  brought  you  some  of  the  cakes  one  day,  and  you 
seemed  as  pleased  as  anything." 

"  And  instead  of  learning  German  you  and  he 
have  been  making  up  this  sort  of  thing  ?  " 

Anna's  voice  and  eyes  frightened  Letty.  She 
shifted  from  one  foot  to  the  other  and  looked  down 
sullenly.  "  What's  the  good  of  being  angry,"  she 
said,  addressing  the  carpet,  "  it's  only  Mr.  Jessup 
over  again.  Leechy  wasn't  angry  with  Mr.  Jessup. 
She  was  frightfully  pleased.  She  says  it's  the  greatest 
compliment  a  person  can  pay  anybody,  going  on 
about  them,  like  Herr  Klutz  does,  and  talking  rot." 

Anna  stared  at  her,  bewildered.  "  Mr.  Jessup  ?  " 
she  repeated.  "  And  do  you  mean  to  tell  me  that 
Miss  Leech  knows  of  this — this  disgusting  non- 
sense? "  She  held  them  angled  heart  at  arm's  length, 
crushing  it  in  her  hand. 

"  I  say,  you'll  spoil  it.  He  worked  at  it  for 
days.  There  weren't  any  paints  red  enough  for  the 
wound,  and  he  had  to  go  to  Stralsund  on  purpose. 
He  thought  no  end  of  it."  And  Letty,  scared 
though  she  was,  could  not  resist  giggling  a  little. 

"  Do  you  mean  to  tell  me  that  Miss  Leech  knows 
about  this  ?  "  insisted  Anna. 

"  Rather  not.  It's  a  secret.  He  made  me  promise 
faithfully  never  to  tell  a  soul.     Of  course  it  doesn't 


28o  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

matter  talking  to  you,  because  you're  one  of  the 
persons  concerned.  You  can't  be  married,  you 
know,  without  knowing  about  it,  so  I'm  not  breaking 
my  promise  talking  to  you " 

"  Married  ?  What  unutterable  rubbish  have  you 
got  into  your  head  ?  " 

"  That's  what  I  said — or  something  like  it.  I 
said  it  was  jolly  rot.  He  said  '  What's  rot  ? '  I  said 
'  That.'  " 

"  But  what .''  "  asked  Anna  angrily.  She  longed 
to  shake  her. 

"  Why,  that  about  marrying  you.  I  told  him  it 
was  rot,  and  I  was  sure  you  wouldn't ;  but  as  he 
didn't  know  what  rot  was,  it  wasn't  much  good. 
He  hunted  it  out  in  the  dictionary,  and  still  he  didn't 
know." 

Anna  stood  looking  at  her  with  indignant  eyes. 
"  You  don't  know  what  you  have  done,"  she  said, 
"  evidently  you  don't.  It  is  a  dreadful  thing  that 
the  moment  Miss  Leech  leaves  you  you  should  begin 
to  talk  of  such  things — such  horrid  things — with  a 
stranger.     A  little  girl  of  your  age " 

"  I  didn't  begin,"  whimpered  Letty,  overcome  by 
the  wrath  in  Anna's  voice. 

"But  all  this  time  you  have  been  going  on  with 
it,  instead  of  at  once  telling  Miss  Leech  or  me." 

"  I  never  met  a — a  lover  before— I  thought  it 
— o;reat  fun." 

"  Then  all  those  flowers  were  from  him  ?  " 

*' Ye — es."     Letty  was  in  tears. 

"  He  thought  I  knew  they  were  from  him  ?  " 

No  answer. 

"  Did  he  ?  "  insisted  Aima. 

"Ye— es." 

"  You  are  a  very  wicked  little  girl,"  said  Anna, 


xxr  THE  BENEFACTRESS  281 

with  awful  sternness.  "You  have  been  acting  un- 
truths every  day  for  ages,  which  is  just  as  bad  as 
telling  them.  I  don't  believe  you  have  an  idea  of 
the  horridness  of  what  you  have  done — I  hope  you 
have  not.  Of  course  your  lessons  at  Lohm  have 
come  to  an  end.  You  will  not  go  there  again. 
Probably  I  shall  send  you  home  to  your  mother. 
I  am  nearly  sure  that  I  shall.  Go  away."  And  she 
pointed  to  the  door. 

That  night  neither  Letty  nor  Miss  Leech  appeared 
at  supper  ;  both  were  shut  up  in  their  rooms  in  tears. 
Miss  Leech  was  quite  unable  to  forgive  herself.  It 
was  all  her  fault,  she  felt.  She  had  been  appalled 
when  Anna  showed  her  the  heart  and  told  her  what 
had  been  going  on  while  she  was  learning  to  cook  in 
Frau  Manske's  kitchen.  "  Such  a  quiet,  respectable- 
looking  young  man  !  "  she  exclaimed,  horror-stricken. 
"  And  about  to  take  holy  orders  !  " 

"  Well,  you  see  he  isn't  quiet  and  respectable  at 
all,"  said  Anna.  "  He  is  unusually  enterprising,  and 
quite  without  morals.  Only  a  demoralised  person 
would  take  advantage  of  a  poor  little  pupil  in  that 
way." 

She  lit  a  candle,  and  burnt  the  heart.  "  There," 
she  said,  when  it  was  in  ashes,  *'  that's  the  end  of 
that.  Heaven  knows  what  Letty  has  been  led  into 
saying,  or  what  ideas  he  has  put  into  her  head.  I 
can't  bear  to  think  of  it.  I  hadn't  the  courage  to 
cross-question  her  much — I  was  afraid  I  should  hear 
something  that  would  make  me  too  angry,  and  I'd 
have  to  tell  the  parson.  Anyhow,  dear  Miss  Leech, 
we  will  not  leave  her  alone  again,  ever,  will  we  ?  I 
don't  suppose  a  thing  like  this  will  happen  twice,  but 
we  won't  let  it  have  a  chance,  will  we  ?  Now  don't 
be  too  unhappy.     Tell  me  about  Mr.  Jessup." 


282  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

It  was  Miss  Leech's  fault,  Anna  knew  ;  but  she 
so  evidently  knew  it  herself,  and  was  so  deeply  dis- 
tressed, that  rebukes  were  out  of  the  question.  She 
spent  the  evening  and  most  of  the  night  in  useless 
laments,  while,  in  the  room  adjoining,  Letty  lay  face 
downwards  on  her  bed,  bathed  in  tears.  For  Letty's 
conscience  was  in  a  grievous  state  of  tumult.  She 
had  meant  well,  and  she  had  done  badly.  She  had 
not  thought  her  aunt  would  be  angry — was  she 
not  in  full  possession  of  the  facts  concerning  Mr. 
Jessup's  courtship  ?  And  had  not  Miss  Leech  said 
that  no  higher  honour  could  be  paid  to  a  woman  than 
to  fall  in  love  with  her  and  make  her  an  offer  of 
marriage  ?  Herr  Klutz,  it  is  true,  was  not  the  sort 
of  person  her  aunt  could  marry,  for  her  aunt  was 
stricken  in  years,  and  he  looked  about  the  same  age 
as  her  brother  Peter ;  besides,  he  was  clearly,  thought 
Letty,  of  the  guttersnipe  class,  a  class  that  bit  its  nails 
and  never  married  people's  aunts.  But  after  all,  her 
aunt  could  always  say  No  when  the  supreme  moment 
arrived,  and  nobody  ought  to  be  offended  because 
they  have  been  fallen  in  love  with,  and  he  was  fright- 
fully in  love,  and  talked  the  most  awful  rot.  Nor 
had  she  encouraged  him.  On  the  contrary,  she  had 
discouraged  him  ;  but  it  was  precisely  this  discourage- 
ment, so  virtuously  administered,  that  lay  so  heavily 
on  her  conscience  as  she  lay  so  heavily  on  her  bed. 
She  had  been  proud  of  it  till  this  interview  with  her 
aunt ;  since  then  it  had  taken  on  a  different  com- 
plexion, and  she  was  sure,  dreadfully  sure,  that  if  her 
aunt  knew  of  it  she  would  be  very  angry  indeed — 
much,  much  angrier  than  she  was  before.  Letty 
rolled  on  her  bed  in  torments  ;  for  the  discourage- 
ment administered  to  Klutz  had  been  in  the  form  of 
poetry,  and  poetry  written  on  her  aunt's  notepaper. 


XXI  THE  BENEFACTRESS  283 

and  purporting  to  come  from  her.  She  had  meant 
so  well,  and  what  had  she  done  ?  When  no  answer 
came  by  return  to  his  poem  hidden  in  the  wall- 
flowers, he  had  refused  to  believe  that  the  bouquet 
had  reached  its  destination.  "  There  has  been 
treachery,"  he  cried  ;  "  you  have  played  me  false." 
And  he  seemed  to  fold  up  with  affliction. 

"  I  gave  it  to  her  all  right.  She  hasn't  found 
the  letter  yet,"  said  Letty,  trying  to  comfort,  and 
astonished  by  the  loudness  of  his  grief.  "  It's  all 
right — you  wait  a  bit.  She  liked  the  flowers  awfully, 
and  kissed  them." 

"  Poor  young  lover,"  she  thought  romantically, 
"  his  heart  must  not  bleed  too  much.  Aunt  Anna, 
if  she  ever  does  find  the  letter,  will  only  send  him  a 
rude  answer.  I  will  answer  it  for  her,  and  gently 
discourage  him."  For  if  the  words  that  proceeded 
from  Letty's  mouth  were  inelegant,  her  thoughts, 
whenever  they  dwelt  on  either  Mr.  Jessup  or  Herr 
Klutz,  were  invariably  clothed  in  the  tender  language 
of  sentiment. 

And  she  had  sat  up  till  very  late,  composing  a 
poem  whose  mission  was  both  to  discourage  and  con- 
sole. It  cost  her  infinite  pains,  but  when  it  was 
finished  she  felt  that  it  had  been  worth  them  all. 
She  copied  it  out  in  capital  letters  on  Anna's  note- 
paper,  folded,  it  up  carefully,  and  tied  it  with  one 
of  her  own  hair-ribbons  to  a  little  bunch  of  lilies- 
of-the-valley  she  had  gathered  for  the  purpose  in 
the  forest. 

This  was  the  poem  : — 

It  is  a  matter  of  regret 

That  circumstances  won't 
Allow  me  to  call  thee  my  pet. 

But  as  it  is  thev  don't. 


284  THE  BENEFACTRESS      chap,  xxi 

For  why  ?      My  many  years  forbid, 

And  likewise  thy  position. 
So  take  advice,  and  strive  amid 

Thy  tears  for  meek  submission. 


Anna. 


And  this  poem  was,   at   that  very  moment,   as  she 
well  knew,  in  Herr  Klutz's  waistcoat  pocket. 


CHAPTER   XXII 

The  ordinary  young  man,  German  or  otherwise, 
hungrily  emerging  from  boyhood  into  a  toothsome 
world  made  to  be  eaten,  cures  himself  of  his  appetite 
by  indulging  it  till  he  is  ill,  and  then  on  a  firm 
foundation  of  his  own  foolish  corpse,  or,  as  the  poet 
puts  it,  of  his  dead  self,  begins  to  build  up  the  better 
things  of  his  later  years. 

Klutz  was  an  ordinary  young  man,  and  arrived  at 
early  manhood  as  hungry  as  his  fellows ;  but  his 
father  was  a  parson,  his  grandfather  had  been  a 
parson,  his  uncles  were  all  parsons,  and  Fate,  coming 
cruelly  to  him  in  the  gloomy  robes  of  the  Lutheran 
Church,  his  natural  follies  had  had  no  opportunity 
of  getting  out,  developing,  and  dissolving,  but  re- 
mained shut  up  in  his  heart,  where  they  amused 
themselves  by  seething  uninterruptedly,  to  his  great 
discomfort,  while  the  good  parson,  in  whose  care  he 
was,  talked  to  him  of  the  world  to  come. 

*'The  world  to  come,"  thought  Klutz,  hungering 
and  thirsting  for  a  taste  of  the  world  in  which  he 
was,  "may  or  may  not  be  very  well  in  its  way; 
but  its  way  is  not  my  way."  And  he  listened  to 
Manske's  expatiations  in  a  silence  that  might  be  taken 
either  for  awed  or  bored.  Manske,  of  course,  inter- 
preted it  as  awed.     "Our  young  vicar,"  he  said  to 


286  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

his  wife,  "  thinks  much.  He  is  serious  and  con- 
templative beyond  his  years.  He  is  not  a  man  of 
many  and  vain  words."  To  which  his  wife  replied 
only  by  a  snifF  of  scepticism. 

She  had  no  direct  proofs  that  Klutz  was  not  seri- 
ous and  contemplative,  but  during  his  first  winter  in 
their  house  he  had  fallen  into  her  bad  graces  because 
of  a  certain  indelicately  appreciative  attitude  he  dis- 
played towards  her  apple  jelly.  Not  that  she  grudged 
him  apple  jelly  in  just  quantities  ;  both  she  and  her 
husband  were  fond  of  it,  and  the  eating  of  it  was  luckily 
one  of  those  pleasures  whose  indulgence  is  innocent. 
But  there  are  limits  beyond  which  even  jelly  becomes 
vicious,  and  these  limits  Herr  Klutz  continually  over- 
stepped. Every  autumn  she  made  a  sufficient  number 
of  pots  of  it  to  last  discreet  appetites  a  whole  year. 
There  had  always  been  vicars  in  their  house,  and 
there  had  never  been  a  dearth  of  jelly.  But  this 
year,  so  early  as  Easter,  there  were  only  two  pots 
left.  She  could  not  conveniently  lock  it  up  and 
refuse  to  produce  any,  for  then  she  and  her  husband 
would  not  have  it  themselves  ;  so  all  through  the 
winter  she  had  watched  the  pots  being  emptied  one 
after  the  other,  and  the  thinner  the  rows  in  her  store- 
room grew,  the  more  pronounced  became  her  convic- 
tion that  Klutz's  piety  was  but  skin  deep.  A  young 
man  who  could  behave  in  so  unbridled  a  fashion 
could  not  be  really  serious  ;  there  was  something,  she 
thought,  that  smacked  suspiciously  of  the  flesh  and 
the  devil  about  such  conduct.  Great,  then,  was  her 
astonishment  when,  the  penultimate  pot  being  placed 
at  Easter  on  the  table.  Klutz  turned  from  it  with 
loathing.  Nor  did  he  ever  look  at  apple  jelly  again  ; 
nor  did  he,  of  other  viands,  eat  enough  to  keep  him 
in  health.     He  who  had  been  so  voracious  forgot  his 


XXII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  287 

meals,  and  had  to  be  coaxed  before  he  would  eat  at 
all.  He  spent  his  spare  time  writing,  sitting  up 
sometimes  all  night,  and  consuming  candles  at  the 
same  headlong  rate  with  which  he  had  previously 
consumed  the  jelly  ;  and  when  towards  May  her 
husband  once  more  commented  on  his  seriousness, 
Frau  Manske's  conscience  no  longer  permitted  her 
to  snifF. 

"  You  must  be  ill,"  she  said  to  him  at  last,  on 
a  day  when  he  had  sat  through  the  meals  in  silence 
and  had  refused  to  eat  at  all. 

"111!"  burst  out  Klutz,  whose  body  and  soul 
seemed  both  to  be  in  one  fierce  blaze  of  fever — "  I 
am  sick — sick  even  unto  death." 

And  he  did  feel  sick.  Only  two  days  had  elapsed 
since  he  had  received  Anna's  poem  and  had  been 
thrown  by  it  into  a  tumult  of  delight  and  triumph  ; 
for  the  discouragement  it  contained  had  but  encour- 
aged him  the  more,  appearing  to  be  merely  the 
becoming  self- depreciation  of  a  woman  before  him 
who  has  been  by  nature  appointed  lord.  He  was 
perfectly  ready  to  overlook  the  obstacles  to  their 
union  to  which  she  alluded.  She  could  not  help 
her  years  ;  there  were,  truly,  more  of  them  than  he 
would  have  wished,  but  luckily  they  were  not  visible 
on  that  still  lovely  face.  As  to  position,  he  supposed 
she  meant  that  he  was  not  adelig ;  but  a  man,  he 
reflected,  compared  to  a  woman,  is  always  adelig^ 
whatever  his  name  may  be,  by  virtue  of  his  higher 
and  nobler  nature.  He  had  been  for  rushing  at 
once  to  Kleinwalde  ;  but  his  pupil  and  confidant 
had  said  "  Don't,"  and  had  said  it  with  such  energy 
that  for  that  day  at  least  he  had  resisted.  And  now, 
the  very  morning  of  the  day  on  which  the  Frau 
Pastor  was  asking  hinn  whether  he  were  ill,  he  had  re- 


288  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

ceived  a  curt  note  from  Miss  Leech,  informing  him 
that  Miss  Letty  Estcourt  would  for  the  present  dis- 
continue her  German  studies.  What  had  happened  ? 
Even  the  poem,  lying  warm  on  his  heart,  was  not 
able  to  dispel  his  fears.  He  had  flown  at  once  to 
Kleinwalde,  feeling  that  it  was  absurd  not  to  follow 
the  dictates  of  his  heart  and  cast  himself  in  person 
at  Anna's  no  doubt  expectant  feet,  and  the  door  had 
been  shut  in  his  face  —  rudely  shut,  by  a  coarse 
servant,  whose  manner  had  so  much  enraged  him  that 
he  had  almost  shown  her  the  precious  verses  then 
and  there,  to  convince  her  of  his  importance  in  that 
house  ;  indeed,  the  only  consideration  that  restrained 
him  was  a  conviction  of  her  ignorance  of  the  English 
tongue. 

"  Would  you  like  to  see  the  doctor  ? "  inquired 
Frau  Manske,  startled  by  his  looks  and  words ; 
perhaps  he  had  caught  something  infectious  ;  an 
infectious  vicar  in  the  house  would  be  horrible. 

"  The  doctor ! "  cried  Klutz  ;  and  forthwith 
quoted  the  German  rendering  of  the  six  lines  begin- 
ning, "  Canst  thou  not  minister  to  a  mind  diseased." 

Frau  Manske  was  seriously  alarmed.  Not  aware 
that  he  was  quoting,  she  was  horrified  to  hear  him 
calling  her  Du^  a  privilege  confined  to  lovers,  hus- 
bands, and  near  relations,  and  asking  her  questions 
that  she  was  sure  no  decent  vicar  would  ever  ask 
the  respectable  mother  of  a  family.  "  I  am  sure 
you  ought  to  see  the  doctor,"  she  said  nervously, 
getting  up  hastily  and  going  to  the  door. 

"  No,  no,"  said  Klutz  ;  "  the  doctor  does  not  exist 
who  can  help  me." 

His  hand  went  to  the  breast-pocket  containing 
the  poem,  and  he  fingered  it  feverishly.  He  longed 
to  show  it  to  Frau  Manske,  to  translate  it  for  her, 


XXII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  289 

to  let  her  see  what  the  young  Kleinwalde  lady,  joint 
patron  with  Herr  von  Lohm  of  her  husband's  living, 
thought  of  him. 

"  I  will  ask  my  husband  about  the  doctor,"  persisted 
Frau  Manske,  disappearing  with  unusual  haste.  If 
she  had  stayed  one  minute  longer  he  would  have 
shown  her  the  poem. 

Klutz  did  not  wait  to  hear  what  the  pastor  said, 
but  crushed  his  felt  hat  on  to  his  head  and  started 
for  a  violent  walk.  He  would  go  through  Klein- 
walde, past  the  house  ;  he  would  haunt  the  woods  ; 
he  would  wait  about.  It  was  a  hot,  gusty  May 
afternoon,  and  the  wind  that  had  been  quiet  so  long 
was  blowing  up  the  dust  in  clouds  ;  but  he  hurried 
along  regardless  of  heat  and  wind  and  dust,  with 
an  energy  surprising  in  one  who  had  eaten  nothing 
all  day.  Love  had  come  to  him  very  turbulently. 
He  had  been  looking  for  it  ever  since  he  left  school  ; 
but  his  watchful  parents  had  kept  him  in  solitary 
places — empty,  uninhabited  places  like  Lohm — places 
where  the  parson's  daughters  were  either  married  or 
were  still  tied  on  the  cushions  of  infancy.  Sometimes 
he  had  been  invited,  as  a  great  condescension,  to  the 
Dellwigs'  Sunday  parties ;  and  there  too  he  had 
looked  around  for  Love.  But  the  company  consisted 
solely  of  stout  farmers'  wives,  ladies  of  thirty,  forty, 
fifty — of  a  dizzy  antiquity,  that  is,  and  their  talk 
was  of  butter-making  and  sausages,  and  they  cared 
not  at  all  for  Love.  "  Oh,  Love,  Love,  Love,  where 
shall  I  find  thee  .'' "  he  would  cry  to  the  stars  on  his 
way  home  through  the  forest  after  these  evenings  ; 
but  the  stars  twinkled  coldly  on,  obviously  profoundly 
indifferent  as  to  whether  he  found  it  or  not.  His 
chest  of  drawers  was  full  of  the  poems  into  which 
he  had  poured  the  emotions  of  twenty,  the  emotions 


290  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

and  longings  that  well-fed,  unoccupied  twenty  mis- 
takes for  soul.  And  then  the  English  Miss  had 
burst  upon  his  gaze,  sitting  in  her  carriage  on  that 
stormy  March  day,  smiling  at  him  from  the  very 
first,  piercing  his  heart  through  and  through  with 
eyes  that  many  persons  besides  Klutz  saw  were 
lovely,  and  so  had  he  found  Love,  and  for  ever 
lost  his  interest  in  apple  jelly. 

It  was  a  confident,  bold  Love,  with  more  hopes 
than  fears,  more  assurance  than  misgivings.  The 
poem  seemed  to  burn  his  pocket,  so  violently  did 
he  long  to  show  it  round,  to  tell  every  one  of  his 
good  fortune.  The  lilies  -  of-  the  -  valley  to  which 
it  had  been  tied  and  that  he  wore  since  all  day  long 
in  his  coat,  were  hardly  brown,  and  yet  he  was  tired 
already  of  having  such  a  secret  to  himself.  What 
advantage  was  there  in  being  told  by  the  lady  of 
Kleinwalde  that  she  regretted  not  being  able  to  call 
him  Ldmmchen  or  Sch'dtzchen  (the  alternative  render- 
ings his  dictionary  gave  of  pet)  if  no  one  knew  it } 

When  he  reached  the  house  he  walked  past  it  at 
a  snail's  pace,  staring  up  at  the  blank,  repellent 
windows.  Not  a  soul  was  to  be  seen.  He  went 
on  discontentedly.  What  should  he  do  }  The  door 
had  been  shut  in  his  face  once  already  that  day,  why 
he  could  not  imagine.  He  hesitated,  and  turned 
back.  He  would  try  again.  Why  not  '^.  The  Miss 
would  have  scolded  the  servant  roundly  when  she 
heard  that  the  person  who  dwelt  in  her  thoughts  as 
a  Ldmmchen  had  been  turned  away.  He  went  boldly 
round  the  grass  plot  in  front  of  the  house  and 
knocked. 

The  same  servant  appeared.  Instantly  on  seeing 
him  she  slammed  the  door,  and  called  out  '*  'Nicht  zu 
Haus !  " 


xxir  THE  BENEFACTRESS  291 

"  Ekelhaftes  Benehmen  !  "  cried  Klutz  aloud,  flam- 
ing into  sudden  passion.  His  mind,  never  very 
strong,  had  grown  weaker  along  with  his  body 
during  these  exciting  days  of  love  and  fasting.  A 
wave  of  fury  swept  over  him  as  he  stood  before  the 
shut  door  and  heard  the  servant  going  away  ;  and 
hardly  knowing  what  he  did,  he  seized  the  knocker, 
and  knocked  and  knocked  till  the  woods  rang. 

There  was  a  sound  of  hurried  footsteps  on  the 
path  behind  him,  and  turning  his  head,  his  hand 
still  knocking,  he  saw  Dellwig  running  towards 
him. 

"  Nanu  !  "  cried  Dellwig  breathlessly,  staring  in 
blankest  astonishment.  "  What  in  the  devil's  name 
are  you  making  this  noise  for  .^  Is  the  parson  on 
fire.'*  " 

Klutz  stared  back  in  a  dazed  sort  of  way,  his  fury 
dying  out  at  once  in  the  presence  of  the  stronger 
nature  ;  then,  because  he  was  twenty,  and  because 
he  was  half-starved,  and  because  he  felt  he  was  being 
cruelly  used,  there  on  Anna's  doorstep,  in  the  full 
light  of  the  evening  sun,  with  Dellwig's  eyes  upon 
him,  he  burst  into  a  torrent  cf  tears. 

"  Well  of  all — what's  wrong  at  Lohm,  you  great 
sheep.''"  asked  Dellwig,  seizing  his  arm  and  giving 
him  a  shake. 

Klutz  signified  by  a  movement  of  his  head  that 
nothing  was  wrong  at  Lohm.  He  was  crying  like 
a  baby,  into  a  red  pocket-handkerchief,  and  could 
not  speak. 

Dellwig,  still  gripping  his  arm,  stared  at  him  a 
moment  in  silence  ;  then  he  turned  him  round, 
pushed  him  down  the  steps,  and  walked  him  off. 
"  Come  along,  young  man,"  he  said,  "  I  want  some 
explanation  of  this.     If  you  are  mad  you'll  be  locked 


292  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

up.  We  don't  fancy  madmen  about  our  place. 
And  if  you're  not  mad  you'll  be  fined  by  the 
Amtsvorsteher  for  disorderly  conduct.  Knocking 
like  that  at  a  lady's  door  !  I  wonder  you  didn't 
kick  it  in,  while  you  were  about  it.  It's  a  good 
thing  the  Herrschaften  are  out." 

Klutz  really  felt  ill.  He  leaned  on  Dellwig's 
arm  and  let  himself  be  helped  along,  the  energy  gone 
out  of  him  with  the  fury.  "  You  have  never  loved," 
was  all  he  said,  wiping  his  eyes. 

"  Oh  that's  it,  is  it }  It  is  love  that  made  you 
want  to  break  the  knocker  .^^  Why  didn't  you  go 
round  to  the  back }  Which  of  them  is  it  ?  The 
cook,  of  course.  You  look  hungry.  A  Kandidat 
crying  after  a  cook  !  "  And  Dellwig  laughed  loud 
and  long. 

"  The  cook  !  "  cried  Klutz,  galvanised  by  the  word 
into  life.  "  The  cook  !  "  He  thrust  a  shaking  hand 
into  his  breast-pocket  and  dragged  it  out,  the 
precious  paper,  unfolding  it  with  trembling  fingers, 
and  holding  it  before  Dellwig's  eyes.  "  So  much  for 
your  cooks,"  he  said,  tremulously  triumphant.  They 
were  in  the  road,  out  of  sight  of  the  house.  Dellwig 
took  the  paper  and  held  it  close  to  his  eyes. 
"  What's  this  .?  "  he  asked,  scrutinising  it.  "  It  is  not 
German." 

"  It  is  English,"  said  Klutz. 

"  What,  the  governess .''  " 

Klutz  merely  pointed  to  the  name  at  the  end. 
Oh,  the  sweetness  of  that  moment ! 

"  Anna  } "  read  out  Dellwig,  "  Anna  ?  That  is 
Miss  Estcourt's  name." 

"  It  is,"  said  Klutz,  his  tears  all  dried  up. 

"  It  seems  to  be  poetry,"  said  Dellwig  slowly. 

"  It  is,"  said  Klutz. 


XXII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  293 

"  Why  have  you  got  it  ? " 

"  Why  indeed !  It's  mine.  She  sent  it  to  me. 
She  wrote  it  for  me.     These  flowers " 

"  Miss  Estcourt  ?  Sent  it  to  you  ?  Poetry  .?  To 
you  ?  "  Dellwig  looked  up  from  the  paper  at  Klutz, 
and  examined  him  slowly  from  head  to  foot  as  if  he 
had  never  seen  him  before.  His  expression  while  he 
did  it  was  not  flattering,  but  Klutz  rarely  noticed 
expressions.  *' What's  it  all  about?"  he  asked, 
when  he  had  reached  Klutz's  boots,  by  which  he 
seemed  struck,  for  he  looked  at  them  twice. 

"  Love,"  said  Klutz  proudly. 

"  Love .?  " 

"  Let  me  come  home  with  you,"  said  Klutz 
eagerly,  "  I'll  translate  it  there.  I  can't  here,  where 
we  might  be  disturbed." 

"  Come  on,  then,"  said  Dellwig,  walking  off  at  a 
great  pace  with  the  paper  in  his  hand. 

Just  as  they  were  turning  into  the  farmyard  the 
rattle  of  a  carriage  was  heard  coming  down  the  road. 
"Stop,"  said  Dellwig,  laying  his  hand  on  Klutz's 
arm,  "  the  Herrschaften  have  been  drinking  coff^ee  in 
the  woods — here  they  are,  coming  home.  You  can 
get  a  greeting  if  you  wait." 

They  both  stood  on  the  edge  of  the  road,  and  the 
carriage  with  Anna  and  a  selection  from  her  house- 
party  drove  by.  Dellwig  and  Klutz  swept  off  their 
hats.  When  Anna  saw  Klutz  she  turned  scarlet 
— undeniably,  unmistakeably  scarlet — and  looked 
away  quickly.  Dellwig's  lips  shaped  themselves  into 
a  whistle.  "  Come  in,  then,"  he  said,  glancing  at 
Klutz  ;   "  come  in  and  translate  your  poem." 

Seldom  had  Klutz  passed  more  delicious  moments 
than  those  in  which  he  rendered  Letty's  verses  into 
German,    with   both    the   Delhvigs    drinking  in   his 


294  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

words.  The  proud  and  exclusive  Dellwigs !  A 
month  ago  such  a  thing  would  have  been  too  wild  a 
flight  of  fancy  for  the  most  ambitious  dream.  In  the 
very  room  in  which  he  had  been  thrust  aside  at 
parties,  forgotten  in  corners,  left  behind  when  the 
others  went  into  supper,  he  was  now  sitting  the  centre 
of  interest,  with  his  former  supercilious  hosts  hanging 
on  his  words.  When  he  had  done,  had  all  too  soon 
come  to  the  end  of  his  deUghtful  task,  he  looked 
round  at  them  triumphantly  ;  and  his  triumph  was 
immediately  dashed  out  of  him  by  Dellwig,  who  said 
with  his  harshest  laugh,  "  Put  aside  all  your  hopes, 
young  man — Miss  Estcourt  is  engaged  to  Herr  von 
Lohm." 

"  Engaged  ?  To  Herr  von  Lohm  }  "  Klutz 
echoed  stupidly,  his  mouth  open,  and  the  hand 
holding  the  verses  dropping  limply  to  his  side. 

"  Engaged,  engaged,  engaged,"  Dellwig  repeated 
in  a  loud  sing-song,  "  not  openly,  but  all  the  same 
engaged." 

"  It  is  truly  scandalous  !  "  cried  his  wife,  greatly 
excited,  and  firmly  believing  that  the  verses  were 
indeed  Anna's.  Was  she  not  herself  of  the  race  of 
JVeiber^  and  did  she  not  therefore  well  know  what 
they  were  capable  of  } 

"  Silence,  Frau  !  "  commanded  Dellwig. 

"  And  she  takes  my  flowers — my  daily  offerings, 
floral  and  poetical,  and  she  sends  me  these  verses — 
and  all  the  time  she  is  betrothed  to  some  one  else  ^  " 

"She  is,"  said  Dellwig  with  another  burst  of 
laughter,  for  Klutz's  face  amused  him  intensely.  He 
got  up  and  slapped  him  on  the  shoulder,  "  This  is 
your  first  experience  of  Weiber^  eh  t  Don't  waste 
your  heartaches  over  her.  She  is  a  young  lady  who 
likes  to  have  her  little  joke  and  means  no  harm " 


XXII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  295 

"  She  Is  a  person  without  shame ! "  cried  his 
wife. 

"  Silence,  Frau  !  "  snapped  Dellwig.  "  Look  here, 
young  man — why,  w^hat  does  he  look  like,  sitting 
there  with  all  the  wind  knocked  out  of  him  ?  Get 
him  a  glass  of  brandy,  Frau,  or  we  shall  have  him 
crying  again.  Sit  up,  and  be  a  man.  Miss  Estcourt 
is  not  for  you,  and  never  will  be.  Only  a  vicar 
could  ever  have  dreamed  she  was,  and  have  been 
imposed  upon  by  this  poetry  stuff.  But  though 
you're  a  vicar  you're  a  man,  eh  ?  Here,  drink  this, 
and  tell  us  if  you  are  not  a  man." 

Klutz  feebly  tried  to  push  the  glass  away,  but 
Dellwig  insisted.  Klutz  was  pale  to  ghastliness,  and 
his  eyes  were  brimming  again  with  tears. 

"  Oh,  this  person  !  Oh,  this  Englishwoman  ! 
Oh,  the  shameful  treatment  of  an  estimable  young 
man !  "  cried  Frau  Dellwig,  staring  at  the  havoc 
Anna  had  wrought. 

"  Silence,  Frau  !  "  shouted  Dellwig  stamping  his 
foot.  "  You  can't  be  treated  like  this,"  he  went  on 
to  Klutz,  who,  used  to  drinking  much  milk  at  the 
abstemious  parsonage,  already  felt  the  brandy  running 
along  his  veins  like  liquid  fire,  "  you  can't  be  made 
ridiculous  and  do  nothing.  A  vicar  can't  fight,  but 
you  must  have  some  revenge." 

Klutz  started.  "  Revenge  !  Yes,  but  what 
revenge  ?''  he  asked. 

"  Nothing  to  do  with  Miss  Estcourt,  of  course. 
Leave  her  alone " 

"  Leave  her  alone  ?  "  cried  his  wife,  "  what,  when 
she  it  is " 

"Silence,  Frau."  roared  Dellwig.  "Leave  her 
alone,  I  say.  You  won't  gain  anything  there,  young 
man.      But  go  to  her  Brau/igam  Lohm  and  tell  him 


296  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

about  it,    and    show   him   the    stuff.     He'll   be    in- 
terested." 

Dellwig  laughed  boisterously,  and  took  two  or 
three  rapid  turns  up  and  down  the  room.  He  had 
not  lived  with  old  Joachim  and  seen  much  of  old 
Lohm  and  the  surrounding  landowners  without 
having  learned  something  of  their  views  on  questions 
of  honour.  Axel  Lohm  he  knew  to  be  specially- 
strict  and  strait-laced,  to  possess  in  quite  an  un- 
usual degree  the  ideals  that  Dellwig  thought  so 
absurd  and  so  unpractical — the  ideals,  that  is,  of  a 
Christian  gentleman.  Had  he  not  known  him  since 
he  was  a  child .?  And  he  had  always  been  a  prig. 
How  would  he  like  Miss  Estcourt  to  be  talked  about, 
as  of  course  she  would  be  talked  about  ?  Klutz's 
mouth  could  not  be  stopped,  and  the  whole  district 
would  know  what  had  been  going  on.  Axel  Lohm 
could  not  and  would  not  marry  a  young  lady  who 
wrote  verses  to  vicars  ;  and  if  all  relations  between 
Lohm  and  Kleinwalde  ceased,  why  then  life  would 
resume  its  former  pleasant  course,  he,  Dellwig, 
staying  on  at  his  post,  becoming,  as  was  natural,  his 
mistress's  sole  adviser,  and  certainly  after  due  per- 
suasion achieving  all  he  wanted,  including  the  brick- 
kiln. The  plainness  and  clearness  of  the  future  was 
beautiful.  He  walked  up  and  down  the  room  making 
odd  sounds  of  satisfaction,  and  silencing  his  wife  with 
vigour  every  time  she  opened  her  lips.  Even  his 
wife,  so  quick  as  a  rule  of  comprehension,  had  not 
grasped  how  this  poem  had  changed  their  situation, 
and  how  it  behoved  them  now  not  to  abuse  their 
mistress  before  a  mischief- making  young  man.  She 
was  blinded,  he  knew,  by  her  hatred  of  Miss  Estcourt. 
Women  were  always  the  slaves,  in  defiance  of  their 
own  interests,  to  some   emotion  or  other  ;  if  it  was 


XXII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  297 

not  love,  then  it  was  hatred.  Never  could  they  wait 
for  anything  whatever.  The  passing  passion  must 
out  and  be  indulged,  however  fatal  the  consequences 
might  be.  What  a  set  they  were  !  And  the  best  of 
them,  what  fools.  He  glanced  angrily  at  his  wife  as 
he  passed  her,  but  his  glance,  travelHng  from  her  to 
Klutz,  who  sat  quite  still  with  head  sunk  on  his  chest, 
legs  straight  out  before  him,  the  hand  with  the  paper 
loosely  held  in  it  hanging  down  out  of  the  cufF- 
less  sleeve  nearly  to  the  floor,  and  vacant  eyes  staring 
into  space,  his  good  humour  returned,  and  he  gave 
another  harsh  laugh.  "  Well.^  "  he  said,  standing  in 
front  of  this  dejected  figure.  "  How  long  will  you  sit 
there  ?  If  I  were  you  I'd  lose  no  time.  You  don't 
want  those  two  to  be  making  love  and  enjoying 
themselves  an  hour  longer  than  is  necessary,  do  you  ? 
With  you  out  in  the  cold  .''  With  you  so  cruelly 
deceived  .''  And  made  to  look  so  ridiculous  ^  I'd 
spoil  that  if  I  were  you,  at  once." 

"  Yes,  you  are  right.  I'll  go  to  Herr  von  Lohm 
and  see  if  I  can  have  an  interview." 

Klutz  got  up  with  a  great  show  of  determination, 
put  the  paper  in  his  pocket,  and  buttoned  his  coat 
over  it  for  greater  security.     Then  he  hesitated. 

"It  is  a  shameful  thing,  isn't  it  .^ "  he  said,  his 
eyes  on  Dellwig's  face. 

"Shameful.^     It's  downright  cruel." 

"  Shameful .''  "  began  his  wife. 

"  Silence,  I  tell  thee  !  Young  ladies'  jokes  are 
sometimes  cruel,  you  see.  I  believe  it  was  a  joke, 
but  a  very  heartless  one,  and  one  that  has  made  you 
look  more  foolish  even  than  half-fledged  pastors  of 
your  age  generally  do  look.  It  is  only  fair  in  return 
to  spoil  her  game  for  her.  Take  another  glass  of 
brandy,  and  go  and  do  it." 


298  THE  BENEFACTRESS    chap,  xxii 

Klutz  stared  hard  for  a  moment  at  Dellvvig. 
Then  he  seized  the  brandy,  gulped  it  down,  snatched 
up  his  hat,  and  taking  no  farewell  notice  of  either 
husband  or  wife,  hurried  out  of  the  room.  They 
saw  him  pass  beneath  the  window,  his  hat  over  his 
eyes,  his  face  white,  his  ears  aflame. 

"  There  goes  a  fool,"  said  Dellwig,  rubbing  his 
hands,  "  and  as  useful  a  one  as  ever  I  saw.  But 
here's  another  fool,"  he  added,  turning  sharply  to  his 
wife,  "  and  I  don't  want  them  in  my  own  house." 

And  he  proceeded  to  tell  her,  in  the  vigorous  and 
convincing  language  of  a  justly  irritated  husband, 
what  he  thought  of  her. 


CHAPTER   XXIII 

Klutz  sped,  as  fast  as  his  shaking  Hmbs  allowed,  to 
Lohm.  When  he  passed  Anna's  house  he  flung  it  a 
look  of  burning  contempt,  which  he  hoped  she  saw 
and  felt  from  behind  some  curtain  ;  and  then,  trying 
to  put  her  from  his  mind,  he  made  desperate  efforts 
to  arrange  his  thoughts  a  little  for  the  coming  inter- 
view. He  supposed  that  it  must  be  the  brandy  that 
made  it  so  difficult  for  him  to  discern  exactly  why  he 
was  to  go  to  Herr  von  Lohm  instead  of  to  the 
person  principally  concerned,  the  person  who  had 
treated  him  so  scandalously  ;  but  Herr  Dellwig  knew 
best,  of  course,  and  judged  the  matter  quite  dispas- 
sionately. Certainly  Herr  von  Lohm,  as  an  in- 
solently happy  rival,  ought  in  mere  justice  to  be 
annoyed  a  little  ;  and  if  the  annoyance  reached  such 
a  pitch  of  effectiveness  as  to  make  him  break  off  the 
engagement,    why    then — there    was    no    knowing — 

perhaps  after  all ?     The  ordinary  Christian  was 

bound  to  forgive  his  erring  brother  ;  how  much 
more,  then,  was  it  incumbent  on  a  pastor  to  for- 
give his  erring  sister.?  But  Klutz  did  wish  that 
some  one  else  could  have  done  the  annoying  for 
him,  leaving  him  to  deal  solely  with  Anna,  a  woman, 
a  member  of  the  sex  in  whose  presence  he  was 
always    at    his    ease.       The    brandy    prevented    him 


300  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

from  feeling  it  as  acutely  as  he  would  otherwise 
have  done,  but  the  plain  truth,  the  truth  undis- 
guised by  brandy,  was  that  he  looked  up  to  Axel 
Lohm  with  a  respect  bordering  on  fear,  had  never  in 
his  life  been  alone  with  him,  or  so  much  as  spoken  to 
him  beyond  ordinary  civilities  when  they  met,  and  he 
was  frightened. 

By  the  time  he  reached  Axel's  stables,  which  stood 
by  the  roadside  about  five  minutes'  walk  from  Axel's 
gate,  he  found  himself  obliged  to  go  over  his  suffer- 
ings once  again  one  by  one,  to  count  the  dinners  he 
had  missed,  to  remember  the  feverish  nights  and  the 
restless  days,  to  rehearse  what  Dell  wig  had  just  told 
him  of  his  present  ridiculousness,  or  he  would  have 
turned  back  and  gone  home.  But  these  thoughts 
gave  him  the  courage  necessary  to  get  him  through 
the  gate  ;  and  by  the  time  he  had  rounded  the  bend 
in  the  avenue  escape  had  become  impossible,  for  Axel 
was  standing  on  the  steps  of  the  house.  Axel  had  a 
cigar  in  his  mouth  ;  his  hands  were  in  his  pockets, 
and  he  was  watching  the  paces  of  a  young  mare  which 
was  being  led  up  and  down.  Two  pointers  were 
sitting  at  his  feet,  and  when  Klutz  appeared  they 
rushed  down  at  him  barking.  Klutz  did  not  as  a 
rule  object  to  being  barked  at  by  dogs,  but  he  was  in 
a  highly  nervous  state,  and  shrank  aside  involuntarily. 
The  groom  leading  the  mare  grinned  ;  Axel  whistled 
the  dogs  off;  and  Klutz,  with  hot  ears,  walked  up 
and  took  off  his  hat. 

*'  What  can  I  do  for  you,  Herr  Klutz .?  "  asked 
Axel,  his  hands  still  in  his  pockets,  and  his  eyes  on 
the  mare's  legs. 

"  I  wish  to  speak  with  you  privately,"  said 
Klutz. 

"  Gut.       Just     wait    a    moment."       And    Klutz 


XXIII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  301 

waited,  while  Axel,  with  great  deliberation,  con- 
tinued his  scrutiny  of  the  mare,  and  followed  it  up 
by  a  lengthy  technical  discussion  of  her  faults  and 
her  merits  with  the  groom. 

This  was  intolerable.  Klutz  had  come  on  business 
of  vital  importance,  and  he  was  left  standing  there 
for  what  seemed  to  him  at  least  half  an  hour,  as 
though  he  were  rather  less  than  a  dog  or  a  beggar. 
As  time  passed,  and  he  still  was  kept  waiting,  the 
fury  that  had  possessed  him  as  he  stood  helpless 
before  Anna's  shut  door  in  the  afternoon,  returned. 
All  his  doubts  and  fears  and  respect  melted  away. 
What  a  day  he  had  had  of  suffering,  of  every  kind 
of  agitation  !  The  ground  alone  that  he  had 
covered,  going  backwards  and  forwards  between 
Lohm  and  Kleinwalde,  was  enough  to  tire  out  a  man 
in  health  ;  and  he  was  not  in  health — he  was  ill,  fast- 
ing, shaking  in  every  limb.  While  he  had  been 
suffering  {Jeidend  und  schwitzend^  he  said  to  himself, 
grinding  his  teeth),  this  comfortable  man  in  the 
gaiters  and  the  aggressively  clean  cuffs  had  no  doubt 
passed  very  pleasant  and  easy  hours,  had  had  three 
meals  at  least  where  he  had  had  none,  had  smoked 
cigars  and  examined  horses'  legs,  had  ridden  a  little, 
driven  a  little,  and  would  presently  go  round,  now 
that  the  cool  of  the  evening  had  come,  to  Kleinwalde, 
and  sit  in  the  twilight  while  Miss  Estcourt  called  him 
Schatz.  Oh,  it  was  not  to  be  borne  !  Dellwig  was 
right — he  must  be  annoyed,  punished,  at  all  costs 
shaken  out  of  his  lofty  indifference.  "  Let  me  re- 
mind you,"  Klutz  burst  out  in  a  voice  that  trembled 
with  passion,  "  that  I  am  still  here,  and  still  waiting, 
and  that  I  have  only  two  legs.  Your  horse,  I  see, 
has  four,  and  is  better  able  to  stand  and  wait  than  I 
am. 


302  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

Axel  turned  and  stared  at  him.  "  Why,  what  is 
the  matter  .'' "  he  asked,  astonished.  "  You  are 
Manske's  vicar  ^  Yes,  of  course  you  are.  I  did 
not  know  you  had  anything  very  pressing  to  tell  me. 
I  am  sorry  I  have  kept  you — come  in." 

He  sent  the  mare  to  the  stables,  and  led  the  way 
into  his  study.  "Sit  down,"  he  said,  pushing  a 
chair  forward,  and  sitting  down  himself  by  his  writ- 
ing-table.    "  Have  a  cigar.''  " 

*'No." 

"  No  }  "  Axel  stared  again.  "  '  No  thank  you  ' 
is  the  form  prejudice  prefers,"  he  said. 

"  I  care  nothing  for  that." 

"  What  is  the  matter,  my  dear  Herr  Klutz  ? 
You  are  very  angry  about  something." 

*'  I  have  been  shamefully  treated  by  a  woman." 

"  It  is  what  sometimes  happens  to  young  men," 
said  Axel,  smihng. 

"  I  do  not  want  cheap  wisdom  like  that,"  cried 
Klutz,  his  eyes  ablaze. 

Axel's  brows  went  up.  "  You  are  rude,  my  good 
Herr  Klutz,"  he  said.  "Try  to  be  polite  if  you 
wish  me  to  help  you.  If  you  cannot,  I  shall  ask 
you  to  go." 

"  I  will  not  go." 

"  My  dear  Herr  Klutz." 

"  I  say  I  will  not  go  till  I  have  told  you  what  I 
came  to  tell  you.     The  woman  is  Miss  Estcourt." 

"  Miss  Estcourt  ^  "  repeated  Axel,  amazed.  Then 
he  added,  "  Call  her  a  lady." 

"  She  is  a  woman  to  all  intents  and  purposes " 

"  Call  her  a  lady.  It  sounds  better  from  a  young 
man  of  your  station." 

"  Of  my  station  !  What,  a  man  with  the  brains 
of  a  man,  the  mind  of  a  man,  the  sinews  of  a  man. 


XXI II  THE  BENEFACTRESS  303 

is  not  equal,  is  not  superior,  whatever  his  station  may 
be,  to  a  mere  woman  ?  " 

"  I  will  not  discuss  your  internal  arrangements. 
Has  there,  then,  been  some  mistake  about  the  salary 
your  are  to  receive  ?  " 

"What  salary?" 

"  For  teaching  Miss  Letty  Estcourt  ?  " 

"Pah  —  the  salary.  Love  does  not  look  at 
salaries." 

"  That  sounds  magnificent.     Did  you  say  love  ?  " 

"  For  weeks  past,  all  the  time  that  I  have  taught 
the  niece,  she  has  taken  my  flowers,  my  messages,  at 
first  verbal  and  at  last  written " 

"  One  moment.  Of  whom  are  we  talking  ?  1 
have  met  you  with  Miss  Leech " 

*'  The  governess  ?  Ich  danke.  It  is  Miss  Estcourt 
who  has  encouraged  me  and  led  me  on,  and  now, 
after  calling  me  her  Lcimmchen^  takes  away  her  niece 
and  shuts  her  door  in  my  face " 

"  You  have  been  drinking  }  " 

"  Certainly  not,"  cried  Klutz,  the  more  indignantly 
because  of  his  consciousness  of  the  brandy. 

"  Then  you  have  no  excuse  at  all  for  talking  in 
this  manner  of  my  neighbour  .?  " 

"  Excuse  !  To  hear  you,  one  would  think  she 
must  be  a  queen,"  said  Klutz,  laughing  derisively. 
"  If  she  were,  I  should  still  talk  as  I  pleased.  A  cat 
may  look  at  a  king,  I  suppose?"  And  he  laughed 
again,  very  bitterly,  disliking  even  for  one  moment 
to  imagine  himself  in  the  role  of  the  cat. 

"  A  cat  may  look  as  long  and  as  often  as  it  likes," 
said  Axel,  "  but  it  must  not  get  in  the  king's  way. 
I  am  sure  you  can  guess  whv." 

"  I  have  not  come  here  to  guess  why  about 
anything." 


304  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

"  Oh,  it  is  not  very  abstruse — the  cat  would  be 
kicked  by  somebody,  of  course." 

"  Oh,  ho  I  Not  if  it  could  bite,  and  had  what  I 
have  in  its  pocket," 

"  Cats  do  not  have  pockets,  my  dear  Herr  Klutz. 
You  must  have  noticed  that  yourself.  Pray,  what  is 
it  that  you  have  in  yours  .^  " 

"  A  little  poem  she  sent  me  in  answer  to  one  of 
mine.  A  little,  sweet  poem.  I  thought  you  might 
like  to  see  how  your  future  wife  writes  to  another 
man." 

"  Ah — that  is  why  you  have  called  so  kindly  on 
me  ^  Out  of  pure  thoughtfulness.  My  future  wife, 
then,  is  Miss  Estcourt  ^  " 

"  It  is  an  open  secret." 

"  It  is,  most  unfortunately,  not  true.' 

"  y^c/i — I  knew  you  would  deny  it,"  cried  Klutz, 
slapping  his  leg  and  grinning  horribly.  "  I  knew 
you  would  deny  it  when  you  heard  she  had  been 
behaving  badly.  But  denials  do  not  alter  anything 
— no  one  will  believe  them " 

Axel  shrugged  his  shoulders.  "  Am  I  to  see  the 
poem  .^  "  he  asked. 

Klutz  took  it  out  and  handed  it  to  him.  The 
twilight  had  come  into  the  room,  and  Axel  put  the 
paper  down  a  moment  while  he  lit  the  candles  on  his 
table.  Then  he  smoothed  out  its  creases,  and  hold- 
ing it  close  to  the  light  read  it  attentively.  Klutz 
leaned  forward  and  watched  his  face.  Not  a  muscle 
moved.  It  had  been  calm  before,  and  it  remained 
calm.  Klutz  could  hardly  keep  himself  from  leaping 
up  and  striking  that  impassive  face,  striking  some 
sort  of  feeling  into  it.  He  had  played  his  big  card, 
and  Axel  was  quite  unmoved.  What  could  he  do, 
what  could  he  say,  to  hurt  him .'' 


XXIII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  305 

"Shall  we  burn  it?"  inquired  Axel,  looking  up 
from  the  paper. 

"  Burn  it  ?     Burn  my  poem  ?  " 

"  It  is  such  very  great  nonsense.  It  is  written  by 
a  child.  We  know  what  child.  Only  one  in  this 
part  can  write  English." 

"  Miss  Estcourt  wrote  it,  I  tell  you  !  "  cried 
Klutz,  jumping  to  his  feet  and  snatching  the  paper 
away. 

"  Your  telling  me  so  does  not  in  the  very  least 
convince  me.  Miss  Estcourt  knows  nothing  about 
it." 

"  She  does — she  did "  screamed  Klutz,  beside 

himself.  "  Your  Miss  Estcourt — your  Braut — you 
try  to  brazen  it  out  because  you  are  ashamed  of  such 
a  Braut.  It  is  no  use — every  one  shall  see  this,  and 
be  told  about  it — the  whole  province  shall  ring  with 
it — /  will  not  be  the  laughing-stock,  but  you  will 
be.  Not  a  labourer,  not  a  peasant,  but  shall  hear 
of  it " 

"  It  strikes  me,"  said  Axel,  rising,  "  that  you 
badly  want  kicking.  I  do  not  like  to  do  it  in  my 
house  —  it  hardly  seems  hospitable.  If  you  will 
suggest  a  convenient  place,  neutral  ground,  I  shall 
be  pleased  to  come  and  do  it." 

Ele  looked  at  Klutz  with  an  encouraging  smile. 
Then  something  in  the  young  man's  twitching  face 
arrested  his  attention.  "  Do  you  know  what  I 
think .?  "  he  said  quickly,  in  a  different  voice.  "  It  is 
less  a  kicking  that  you  want  than  a  good  meal.  You 
really  look  as  though  you  had  had  nothing  to  eat  for 
a  week.  The  difference  a  beefsteak  would  make  to 
your  views  would  surprise  you.  Come,  come,"  he 
said,  patting  him  on  the  shoulder,  "  I  have  been 
taking  you  too  seriously.     You  are  evidently  not  in 

X 


3o6  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

your  usual  state.  When  did  you  have  food  last  ? 
What  has  Frau  Pastor  been  about  ?  And  your  eye- 
lids are  so  red  that  I  do  believe "  Axel  looked 

closer — "  I  do  believe  you  have  been  crying." 

"  Sir,"  began  Klutz,  struggling  hard  with  a  dread- 
ful inclination  to  cry  again,  for  self-pity  is  a  very 
tender  and  tearflil  sentiment,  "  Sir " 

"  Let  me  order  that  beefsteak,"  said  Axel  kindly. 
"  My  cook  will  have  it  ready  in  ten  minutes." 

"  Sir,"  said  Klutz,  with  the  tremendous  dignity 
that  immediately  precedes  tears,  "  Sir,  I  am  not  to  be 
bribed." 

"  Well,  take  a  cigar  at  least,"  said  Axel,  opening 
his  case.  "  That  will  not  corrupt  you  as  much  as 
the  beefsteak,  and  will  soothe  you  a  little  on  your 
way  home.  For  you  must  go  home  and  get  to  bed. 
You  are  as  near  an  illness  as  any  man  I  ever  saw." 

The  tears  were  so  near,  so  terribly  near,  that, 
hardly  knowing  what  he  did,  and  sooner  than  trust 
himself  to  speak,  Klutz  took  a  cigar  and  lit  it  at 
the  match  Axel  held  for  him.  His  hand  shook 
pitifully. 

"  Now  go  home,  my  dear  Klutz,"  said  Axel  very 
kindly.  "  Tell  Frau  Pastor  to  give  you  some  food, 
and  then  get  to  bed.  I  wish  you  would  have  taken 
the  beefsteak — here  is  your  hat.  If  you  like,  we 
will  talk  about  this  nonsense  later  on.  Believe  me, 
it  is  nonsense.  You  will  be  the  first  to  say  so  next 
week." 

And  he  ushered  him  out  to  the  steps,  and  watched 
him  go  down  them,  uneasy  lest  he  should  stumble  and 
fall,  so  weak  did  he  seem  to  be.  "What  a  hot 
wind  !  "  he  exclaimed.  "  You  will  have  a  dusty  walk 
home.     Go  slowly.     Good-night." 

"  Poor    devil,"    he    thought,    as    Klutz    without 


XXIII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  307 

speaking  went  down  the  avenue  into  the  darkness 
with  unsteady  steps,  "  poor  young  devil — the  highest 
possible  opinion  of  himself,  and  the  smallest  possible 
quantity  of  brains  ;  a  weak  will  and  strong  instincts  ; 
much  unwholesome  study  of  the  Old  I'estament  in 
Hebrew  with  Manske  ;  a  body  twenty  years  old,  and 
the  finest  spring  I  can  remember  filling  it  with  all 
sorts  of  anti-parsonic  longings.  I  believe  I  ought  to 
have  taken  him  home.  He  looked  as  though  he 
would  faint." 

This  last  thought  disturbed  Axel.  The  image  of 
Klutz  fainting  into  a  ditch  and  remaining  in  it  pros- 
trate all  night,  refused  to  be  set  aside  ;  and  at  last  he 
got  his  hat  and  went  down  the  avenue  after  him. 

But  Klutz,  who  had  shuffled  along  quickly,  was 
nowhere  to  be  seen.  Axel  opened  the  avenue  gate 
and  looked  down  the  road  that  led  past  the  stables  to 
the  village  and  parsonage,  and  then  across  the  fields 
to  Kleinwalde  ;  he  even  went  a  little  way  along  it, 
with  an  uneasy  eye  on  the  ditches,  but  he  did  not  see 
Klutz,  either  upright  or  prostrate.  Well,  if  he  were 
in  a  ditch,  he  said  to  himself,  he  would  not  drown  ; 
the  ditches  were  all  as  empty,  dry,  and  burnt-up  as 
four  weeks  incessant  drought  and  heat  could  make 
them.  He  turned  back  repeating  that  eminently 
consolatory  proverb,  Unkraut  vergeht  nicht^  and 
walked  quickly  to  his  own  gate  ;  for  it  was  late,  and 
he  had  work  to  do,  and  he  had  wasted  more  time 
than  he  could  afford  with  Klutz.  A  man  on  a  horse 
coming  from  the  opposite  direction  passed  him.  It 
was  Dell  wig,  and  each  recognised  the  other  ;  but  in 
these  days  of  mutual  and  profound  distrust  both  were 
glad  of  the  excuse  the  darkness  gave  for  omitting 
the  usual  greetings.  Dellwig  rode  on  towards  Klein- 
walde in  silence,  and  Axel  turned  in  at  his  gate. 


3o8  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

But  the  poor  young  devil,  as  Axel  called  him,  had 
not  fainted.  Hurrying  down  the  dark  avenue,  beyond 
Axel's  influence,  far  from  fainting,  it  was  all  Klutz 
could  do  not  to  shout  with  passion  at  his  own 
insufferable  weakness,  his  miserable  want  of  self- 
control  in  the  presence  of  the  man  he  now  regarded 
as  his  enemy.  The  tears  in  his  eyes  had  given  Lohm 
an  opportunity  for  pretending  he  was  sorry  for  him, 
and  for  making  insulting  and  derisive  offers  of  food. 
What  could  equal  in  humiliation  the  treatment  to 
which  he  had  been  subjected .?  First  he  had  been 
treated  as  a  dog,  and  then,  far  worse,  far,  far  worse 
and  more  difficult  to  bear  with  dignity,  as  a  child. 
A  beefsteak  ?  Oh,  the  shame  that  seared  his  soul  as 
he  thought  of  it !  This  revolting  specimen  of  the 
upper  class  had  declared,  with  a  hateful  smile  of 
indulgent  superiority,  that  all  his  love,  all  his  suffer- 
ings, all  his  just  indignation,  depended  solely  for 
their  existence  on  whether  he  did  or  did  not  eat  a 
beefsteak.  Could  coarse  -  mindedness  and  gross 
insensibility  go  further  ^  "  Thrice  miserable  nation  !  " 
he  cried  aloud,  shaking  his  fist  at  the  unconcerned 
stars, — "  thrice  miserable  nation,  whose  ruling  class  is 
composed  of  men  so  vile  !  "  And,  having  removed 
his  cigar  in  order  to  make  this  utterance,  he  remem- 
bered, with  a  great  start,  that  it  was  Axel's. 

He  was  in  the  road,  just  passing  Axel's  stables. 
The  gate  to  the  stable-yard  stood  open,  and  inside 
it,  heaped  against  one  of  the  buildings,  was  a  waggon- 
load  of  straw.  Instantly  Klutz  became  aware  of 
what  he  was  going  to  do.  A  lightning  flash  of  clear 
purpose  illumined  the  disorder  of  his  brain.  It  was 
supper-time,  and  no  one  was  about.  He  ran  inside 
the  gate  and  threw  the  lighted  cigar  on  to  the  straw  ; 
and   because   there  was   not   an   instantaneous  blaze 


XXIII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  309 

fumbled  for  his  matchbox,  and  lit  one  match  after 
the  other,  pushing  them  in  a  kind  of  frenzy  under 
the  loose  ends  of  straw. 

There  was  a  puff  of  smojce,  and  then  a  bright 
tongue  of  flame  ;  and  immediately  he  had  achieved 
his  purpose  he  was  terrified,  and  fled  away  from  the 
dreadful  light,  and  hid  himself,  shuddering,  in  the 
darkness  of  the  country  road. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

"  It's  in  Stralsund,"  cried  the  princess,  hurrying  out 
into  the  Kleinwalde  garden  when  first  the  alarm  was 
given. 

"  It's  in  Lohm,"  cried  some  one  else. 

Anna  watched  the  light  in  silence,  her  face  paler 
than  ordinary,  her  hair  blown  about  by  the  hot  wind. 
The  trees  in  the  dark  garden  swayed  and  creaked,  the 
air  was  parching  and  full  of  dust,  the  light  glared 
brighter  each  moment.  Surely  it  was  very  near  ? 
Surely  it  was  nearer  than  Stralsund.?  "It's  in 
Lohm,"  cried  some  one  with  conviction  ;  and  Anna 
turned  and  began  to  run. 

"Where  are  you  running  to,  Aunt  Anna.?" 
asked  Letty,  breathlessly  following  her  ;  for  since 
the  affair  with  Klutz  she  followed  her  aunt  about 
like  a  conscience-stricken  dog. 

"  The  fire-engine — there  is  one  at  the  farm — it 
must  go " 

They  took  each  other's  hands  and  ran  in  silence. 
Between  the  gusts  of  wind  they  could  hear  the  Lohm 
church -bells  ringing  ;  and  almost  immediately  the 
single  Kleinwalde  bell  began  to  toll,  to  toll  with  a 
forlorn,  blood-curdling  sound  altogether  different 
from  its  unmeaning  Sunday  tinkle. 

In  front  of  her  house  Frau  Dellwig  stood,  watch- 


CHAP.  XXIV    THE  BENEFACTRESS  311 

ing  the  sky.      "  It  is  Lohm,"  she  said  to  Anna  as  she 
came  up  panting. 

"Yes — the  fire-engine — is  it  ordered?  Has  it 
gone.?     No.?     Then  at  once — at  once " 

"  Jawohl,  jawohl^'  said  Frau  Dellwig  with  great 
calm,  the  philosophic  calm  of  him  who  contem- 
plates calamities  other  than  his  own.  She  said 
something  to  one  of  the  maids  who  were  standing 
about  in  pleased  and  excited  groups  laughing  and 
whispering,  and  the  girl  shuffled  off  in  her  clattering 
wooden  shoes.  "  My  husband  is  not  here,"  she 
explained,  "  and  the  men  are  at  supper." 

*'Then  they  must  leave  their  supper,"  cried 
Anna.  "  Go,  go,  you  girls,  and  tell  them  so — look 
how  terrible  it  is  getting " 

**  Yes,  it  is  a  big  fire.  The  girl  I  sent  will  tell 
them.     They  say  it  is  the  Schloss.''' 

"  Oh,  go  yourself  and  tell  the  men — see,  there  is 
no  sign  of  them — every  minute  is  priceless -" 

"It  is  always  a  business  with  the  engine.  It  has 
not  been  required,  thank  God,  for  years.  Mietze, 
go  and  hurry  them." 

The  girl  called  Mietze  went  off  at  a  trot.  The 
others  put  their  heads  together,  looked  at  their  young 
mistress,  and  whispered.  A  stable-boy  came  to  the 
pump  and  filled  his  pail.  Every  one  seemed  com- 
posed, and  yet  there  was  that  bloody  sky,  and  there 
was  that  insistent  cry  for  help  from  the  anxious  bell. 

Anna  could  hardly  bear  it.  What  was  happening 
down  there  to  her  kind  friend  ? 

"  It  is  the  Schloss,'"  said  the  stable-boy  in  answer 
to  a  question  from  Frau  Dellwig  as  he  passed  with 
his  full  pail,  spilling  the  water  at  every  step. 

"  ^ch.  I  thought  so,"  she  said,  glancing  at 
Anna. 


312  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

Anna  made  a  passionate  movement,  and  ran  down 
the  steps  after  the  girl  Mietze.  Frau  Dellwig  could 
not  but  follow,  which  she  did  slowly,  at  a  disapprov- 
ing distance. 

But  Dellwig  galloped  into  the  yard  at  that 
moment,  his  horse  covered  with  sweat,  and  his  loud 
and  peremptory  orders  extracted  the  ancient  engine 
from  its  shed,  got  the  horses  harnessed  to  it,  and 
after  what  Anna  thought  an  eternity  it  rattled  away. 
When  it  started,  the  whole  sky  to  the  south  was  like 
one  dreadful  sheet  of  blood. 

"It  is  the  stables,"  he  said  to  Anna. 

"  Herr  von  Lohm's.''  " 

"  Yes.     They  cannot  be  saved." 

"And  the  house .^  " 

He  shrugged  his  shoulders,  "  It's  a  windy  night," 
he  said,  "  and  the  wind  is  blowing  that  way.  There  are 
pine-trees  between.     Everything  is  as  dry  as  cinders." 

"  The  stables — are  they  insured  ?  " 

But  Dellwig  was  off  again,  after  the  engine. 

"What  can  we  do,  Letty.^  What  can  we  do^'' 
cried  Anna,  turning  to  Letty  when  the  sound  of  the 
wheels  had  died  away  and  only  the  hurried  bell  was 
heard  above  the  whistling  and  banging  of  the  wind. 
"  It's  horrible  here,  listening  to  that  bell  tolling,  and 
looking  at  the  sky.  If  I  could  throw  one  single 
bucketful  of  water  on  the  fire  I  should  not  feel  so 
useless,  so  utterly,  utterly  of  no  use  or  good  for  any- 
thing." 

Neither  of  them  had  ever  seen  a  fire,  and  horror 
had  seized  them  both.  The  night  seemed  so  dark, 
the  world  all  round  so  black,  except  in  that  one 
dreadful  spot.  Anna  knew  Axel  could  not  afford 
to  lose  money.  From  things  Trudi  had  said,  from 
things  the  princess  had   said,  she    knew  it.     There 


XXIV  THE  BENEFACTRESS  313 

was  at  Lohm,  she  felt  rather  than  knew,  an  abundance 
of  everything  necessary  to  ordinary  comfortable  living, 
as  there  generally  is  in  the  country  on  farms  ;  but 
money  was  scarce,  and  a  series  of  bad  seasons,  perhaps 
even  one  bad  season,  or  anything  out  of  the  way 
happening,  might  make  it  very  scarce,  might  make 
the  further  proper  farming  of  the  place  impossible. 
Suppose  the  stables  were  not  insured,  where  would 
the  money  come  from  to  rebuild  them  ?  And  the 
horses — she  had  heard  that  horses  went  mad  with 
fright  in  a  fire,  and  refused  to  leave  their  stables. 
And  the  house — suppose  this  cruel  wind  made  the 
checking  of  the  fire  impossible,  and  it  licked  its  way 
across  the  trees  to  Axel's  house  ?  "  Oh,  what  can 
we  do?''  she  cried  to  the  frightened  Letty. 

"  Let's  go  there,"  said  Letty. 

"  Yes  !  "  cried  Anna,  striking  her  hands  together. 
"Yes!  The  carriage — Frau  Dellwig,  order  the 
carriage — order  Fritz  to  bring  the  carriage  out  at 
once.     Tell  him  to  be  quick — quick  !  " 

"  The  gracious  Miss  will  go  to  Lohm  ?  " 

"  Yes — call  him,  send  for  him — Fritz  !  Fritz  !  " 
She  herself  began  to  call. 

"  But " 

"  Fritz  !  Fritz  !  Run  Letty,  and  see  if  you  can 
find  him." 

"  If  I  may  be  permitted  to  advise " 

"  Fritz  !   Fritz  !   Fritz  !  " 

"  Call  the  herrschaftliche  Kutscher  Fritz,"  Frau 
Dellwig  then  commanded  a  passing  boy  in  a  loud 
and  stern  voice.  "Not  only  mad,  but  improper," 
was  her  private  comment.  "  She  goes  by  night  to 
her  Br'dutigam — to  her  unacknowledged  Brdutigam.'' 
Even  a  possibly  burning  Brdu/igatn  did  not,  in  her 
opinion,  excuse  such  a  step. 


314  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

The  darkness  concealed  the  anger  on  her  face, 
and  Anna  neither  noticed  nor  cared  for  the  anger  in 
her  voice,  but  began  herself  to  run  in  the  direction 
of  the  stables,  leaving  Frau  Dellwig  to  her  reflec- 
tions. 

"  Princess  Ludwig  is  looking  for  you  everywhere, 
Aunt  Anna,"  said  Letty,  coming  towards  her,  having 
found  Fritz  and  succeeded  in  making  him  under- 
stand what  she  wanted. 

"  Where  is  she  ?     Is  the  carriage  coming  ?  " 

"  He  said  five  minutes.  She  was  at  the  house, 
asking  the  servants  if  they  had  seen  you." 

"  Come  along  then  ;  we'll  go  to  her." 

"  I  was  afraid  I  should  not  find  you  here,"  said 
the  princess  as  Anna  came  up  the  steps  of  the  house 
into  the  light  of  the  entry,  "  and  that  you  had  run 
off  to  Lohm  to  put  the  fire  out.  My  dear  child, 
what  do  you  look  like  ?  Come  and  look  at  yourself 
in  the  glass." 

She  led  her  to  the  glass  that  hung  above  the 
Dellwig  hat-stand. 

"  I  am  just  going  there,"  said  Anna,  looking  at 
her  reflection  without  seeing  it.  "  The  carriage  is 
being  got  ready  now." 

"Then  I  am  coming  too.  What  has  the  wind 
been  doing  to  your  hair  ?  See,  I  knew  you  were 
running  about  bareheaded,  and  have  brought  you  a 
scarf.  Come,  let  me  tie  it  over  all  these  excited  little 
curls,  and  turn  you  into  a  sober  and  circumspect 
young  woman." 

Anna  bent  her  head  and  let  the  princess  do  as  she 
pleased.  "  Herr  Dellwig  is  afraid  the  fire  will  spread 
to  the  house,"  she  said  breathlessly.  "  Our  engine 
has  only  just  gone " 

"  I  heard  it," 


XXIV  THE  BENEFACTRESS  315 

"It  is  such  a  lumbering  thing,  it  will  be  hours 
getting  there " 

"Oh,  not  hours.      Haifa  one,  perhaps." 

"  Are  they  insured  ?  " 

'*  The  buildings  ?  They  are  sure  to  be.  But 
there  is  always  a  loss  that  cannot  be  covered — ach^ 
Frau  Dell  wig,  good  evening — you  see  we  have  taken 
possession  of  your  house.  To  have  no  stables  and 
probably  no  horses  just  when  the  busy  time  is  begin- 
ning is  terrible.  Poor  Axel.  There — now  you  are 
tidy.  Wait,  let  me  fasten  your  cloak  and  cover  up 
your  pretty  dress.      Is  Letty  to  come  too  ^  " 

"  Oh — if  she  likes.  Why  doesn't  the  carriage 
come  ^ 

"  It  will  be  much  better  if  Letty  goes  to  bed," 
said  the  princess. 

"  Oh  !  "  said  Letty. 

"  It  is  long  past  her  bedtime,  and  she  has  no  hat, 
and  nothing  round  her.  Shall  we  not  ask  Frau 
Dellwig  to  send  a  servant  with  her  home .''  " 

'■'■  Aber  gewiss "  began  Frau  Dellwig. 

But  Anna  was  out  again  on  the  steps,  was  shutting 
out  the  flaming  sky  with  one  hand  while  she  strained 
her  eyes  into  the  darkness  of  the  corner  where  the 
coach-house  was.  She  could  hear  Fritz's  voice,  and 
the  horses'  hoofs  on  the  cobbles,  and  she  could  see 
the  light  of  a  lantern  jogging  up  and  down  as  the 
stable-boy  who  held  it  hurried  to  and  fro.  "  Quick, 
quick,  Fritz,"  she  cried. 

"  Jawohly  gn'ddiges  Frdulein^^  came  back  the 
answer  in  the  old  man's  cheery,  reassuring  tones. 
But  it  was  like  a  nightmare,  standing  there  waiting, 
waiting,  the  precious  minutes  slipping  by,  terrible 
things  happening  to  Axel,  and  she  herself  unable  to 
stir  a  step  towards  him. 


3i6  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

"  Take  me  with  you — let  me  come  too,"  pleaded 
Letty  from  behind  her,  slipping  her  hand  into 
Anna's. 

"  Then  tie  a  handkerchief  or  something  round 
your  head,"  said  Anna,  her  eyes  on  the  lantern 
moving  about  before  the  coach-house.  Then  the 
carriage  lamps  flashed  out,  and  in  another  moment 
the  carriage  rattled  up. 

It  was  a  ghostly  drive.  As  the  tops  of  the  pine- 
trees  swayed  aside  they  caught  gUmpses  of  the  red 
horror  of  the  sky  ;  and  when  they  got  out  into  the 
open  Anna  cried  out  involuntarily,  for  it  seemed  as 
if  the  whole  world  were  on  fire.  The  spire  of  Lohm 
church  and  the  roofs  of  the  cottages  stood  out  clear 
and  sharp  in  the  fierce  light.  The  horses,  more  and 
more  frightened  the  nearer  they  drew,  plunged  and 
reared,  and  old  Fritz  could  hardly  hold  them  in. 
On  turning  the  corner  by  the  parsonage  they  were 
not  to  be  induced  to  advance  another  yard,  but 
swerved  aside,  kicking  and  terrified,  and  threatening 
every  moment  to  upset  the  carriage  into  the  ditch. 

Anna  jumped  out  and  ran  on.  The  princess, 
slower  and  more  bulky,  was  helped  out  by  Letty  and 
followed  after  as  quickly  as  she  could.  In  the  road 
and  in  the  field  opposite  the  stables  the  whole 
population  was  gathered,  illuminated  figures  in 
eager,  chattering  groups.  From  the  pump  on  the 
green  in  front  of  the  schoolhouse,  a  chain  of  helpers 
had  been  formed,  and  buckets  of  water  were  being 
passed  along  from  hand  to  hand  to  the  engines  ;  and 
there  was  no  other  water.  The  engines  were  working 
farther  down  the  road,  keeping  the  hose  turned  on 
to  the  trees  between  the  stables  and  the  house. 
There  were  clumps  of  pine-trees  among  them,  and 
these  were  the  trees  that  would  carry  the  fire  across 


XXIV  THE  BENEFACTRESS  317 

to  Axel's  house.  Men  in  the  garden  were  hacking 
at  them,  the  Hows  of  their  axes  indistinguishable  in 
the  uproar,  but  every  now  and  then  one  of  the 
victims  fell  with  a  crash  among  its  fellows  still 
standing  behind  it. 

"  Oh,  poor  Axel,  poor  Axel !  "  murmured  Anna, 
drawing  her  scarf  across  her  face  as  she  passed  along 
to  protect  it  from  the  intolerable  heat.  But  she  was 
an  unmistakeable  figure  in  her  blue  cloak  and  white 
dress,  stumbling  on  to  where  the  engines  were  ;  and 
the  groups  of  onlookers  nudged  each  other  and 
turned  to  stare  after  her  as  she  passed. 

"How  did  it  happen?"  she  asked,  suddenly 
stopping  before  a  knot  of  women.  They  were  in 
the  act  of  discussing  her,  and  started  and  looked 
foolish. 

"  No  one  knows,"  said  the  eldest,  when  Anna 
repeated  her  question.  "  They  say  it  was  done  on 
purpose." 

"Done  on  purpose!"  echoed  Anna,  staring  at 
the  speaker.  "  Why,  who  would  set  fire  to  a  place 
on  purpose  V' 

But  to  this  question  no  reply  at  all  was  forthcom- 
ing. They  fidgeted  and  looked  at  each  other,  and 
one  of  the  younger  ones  tittered,  and  then  put  her 
hand  before  her  mouth. 

In  the  potato  field  across  the  road,  two  storks, 
whose  nest  for  many  springs  had  been  on  one  of  the 
roofs  now  burning,  had  placed  their  young  ones  in 
safety,  and  were  watching  over  them.  The  young 
storks  were  only  a  few  days  old,  and  had  been  thrown 
out  of  the  nest  by  the  parents,  and  then  dragged 
away  out  of  danger  into  the  field,  the  parents  mount- 
ing guard  over  their  bruised  and  dislocated  offspring, 
and  the  whole  group  transformed  in  the  glow  into 


3i8  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

a  beautiful,  rosy,  dazzling  white,  into  a  family  ot 
spiritualised,  glorified  storks,  as  they  huddled  rue- 
fully together  in  their  place  of  refuge.  Anna  saw 
them  without  knowing  that  she  saw  them  ;  there  were 
three  little  ones,  and  one  was  dead.  The  princess 
and  Letty  found  her  standing  beside  them,  watching 
the  roaring  furnace  of  the  stableyard  with  parted  lips 
and  wide-open,  horror-stricken  eyes. 

"  Most  of  the  horses  were  got  out  in  time,"  said 
the  princess  taking  Anna's  arm,  determined  that 
she  should  not  again  slip  away,  "  and  they  say  the 
buildings  are  fully  insured,  and  he  will  be  able  to 
have  much  better  ones." 

"But  the  time  lost  —  they  can't  be  built  in  a 
day " 

"  The  man  I  spoke  to  said  they  were  such  old 
buildings  and  in  such  a  bad  state  that  Axel  can  con- 
gratulate himself  that  they  have  been  burned.  But 
of  course  there  will  always  be  the  time  lost.  Have 
you  seen  him  .'*  Let  us  go  on  a  little — we  shall  be 
scorched  to  cinders  here." 

Both  Axel  and  Dellwig  were  superintending  the 
working  of  the  hose.  "  I  do  not  want  my  trees  de- 
stroyed," he  said  to  Dellwig,  with  whom  in  the  stress 
of  the  moment  he  had  resumed  his  earlier  manner  ; 
"  they  are  not  insured."  He  had  watched  the  stables 
go  with  an  impassiveness  that  struck  several  of  the 
bystanders  as  odd.  Dellwig  and  many  others  of  the 
dwellers  in  that  district  were  used  to  making  a  great 
noise  on  all  occasions  great  and  small,  and  they  could 
by  no  means  believe  that  it  was  natural  to  Axel  to 
remain  so  calm  at  such  a  moment.  "  It  is  a  great 
nuisance,"  Axel  said  more  than  once  ;  but  that  also 
was  hardly  an  adequate  expression  of  feelings. 

"  They  are  well  insured,  I  believe.''"  said  Dellwig. 


XXIV  THE  BENEFACTRESS  319 

'*  Oh  yes.  I  shall  be  able  to  have  nice  tight 
buildings  in  their  place." 

"  They  were  certainly  rather — rather  dilapidated," 
said  Dellwig,  eyeing  him. 

"They  were  very  dilapidated,"  said  Axel. 

Anna  and  the  princess  stood  a  little  way  from 
the  engines  watching  the  efforts  to  check  the  spread 
of  the  fire  for  some  time  before  Axel  noticed  them. 
Manske,  who  had  been  the  first  to  volunteer  as  a 
link  in  the  human  chain  to  the  pump,  bowed  and 
smiled  from  his  place  at  them,  and  was  stared  at  in 
return  by  both  women,  who  wondered  who  the  be- 
grimed and  friendly  individual  could  be.  "  It  is  the 
pastor,"  then  said  the  princess,  smiling  back  at  him  ; 
on  which  Manske's  smiles  and  bows  redoubled,  and 
he  spilt  half  the  contents  of  the  bucket  passing 
through  his  hands. 

"So  it  is,"  said  Anna. 

"Take  care,  there,  No.  3!"  roared  Dellwig, 
affecting  not  to  know  who  No.  3  was,  and  glad  of 
an  opportunity  of  calling  the  parson  to  order.  Dell- 
wig was  making  so  much  noise  flinging  orders  and 
reprimands  about,  that  a  stranger  would  certainly 
have  taken  him  for  the  frantic  owner  of  the  burning 
property. 

"  You  see  the  pastor  looks  anything  but  alarmed," 
said  the  princess.  "  If  Axel  were  losing  much  by 
this,  Manske  would  be  weeping  into  his  bucket  in- 
stead of  smiling  so  kindly  at  us." 

"  So  he  would,"  said  Anna,  a  little  reassured  by 
that  cheerful  and  grimy  countenance.  Her  eyes 
wandered  to  Axel,  so  cool  and  so  vigilant,  giving 
the  necessary  orders  so  quietly,  losing  no  precious 
moments  in  trying  to  save  what  was  past  saving,  and 
without  any    noise    or   any   abuse    getting   what   he 


320  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

wanted  done.  "  It  cant  be  a  good  thing,  a  fire  like 
this,"  she  said  to  herself.  "  Whatever  they  say,  it 
carii  be  a  good  thing." 

A  huge  pine-tree  was  dragged  down  at  that 
moment,  dragged  in  a  direction  away  from  its 
fellows,  against  a  beech  whose  branches  it  tore  down 
in  its  fall,  ruining  the  beech  for  ever,  but  smother- 
ing a  {qw  of  its  own  twigs  that  had  begun  to  burn 
among  the  fresh  young  leaves.  Anna  watched  the 
havoc  going  on  among  poor  Axel's  trees  in  silence. 
*'  He  cant  not  care,"  she  said  to  herself.  He  turned 
round  quickly  at  that  moment,  as  though  he  heard 
her  thinking  of  him,  and  looked  straight  into  her 
eyes.  "You  here!"  he  exclaimed,  striding  across 
the  road  to  her  at  once. 

"Yes,  we  are  here,"  replied  the  princess.  "We 
cannot  let  our  neighbour  burn  without  coming  to  see 
if  we  can  do  anything.  But  seriously,  I  hear  that  it 
is  a  good  thing  for  you." 

"  I  prefer  the  less  good  thing  that  I  had  before, 
just  now.  But  it  is  gone.  I  shall  not  waste  time 
fretting  over  it." 

He  ran  back  again  to  stop  something  that  was 
being  done  wrong,  but  returned  immediately  to  tell 
them  to  go  into  his  house  and  not  stand  there  in  the 
heat.  "You  look  so  tired — and  anxious,"  he  said, 
his  eyes  searching  Anna's  face.  "  Why  are  you 
anxious .?  The  fire  has  frightened  you .?  It  is  all 
insured,  I  assure  you,  and  there  is  only  the  bother 
of  having  to  build  just  now." 

He  could  not  stay,  and  hurried  back  to  his  men. 

"  We  can  go  indoors  a  moment,"  said  the  princess, 
"  and  see  what  is  going  on  in  his  house.  It  will  be 
standing  empty  and  open,  and  it  is  not  necessary 
that  he  should  suffer  losses  from  thieves  as  well  as 


xxrv  THE  BENEFACTRESS  321 

from  fire.  His  Mamsell  is  like  all  bachelors'  Mam- 
sells — losing,  I  am  sure,  no  opportunity  of  feathering 
her  nest  at  his  expense." 

Anna  thought  this  a  practical  way  of  helping 
Axel,  since  the  throwing  of  water  on  the  flames  was 
not  required  of  her.  She  turned  to  call  Letty,  and 
found  that  no  Letty  was  to  be  seen.  "  Why,  where 
is  Letty  ?"  she  asked,  looking  round. 

"  1  thought  she  was  behind  us,"  said  the  princess. 

"So  did  I,"  said  Anna  anxiously. 

They  went  back  a  few  steps  looking  for  her 
among  the  bystanders.  They  saw  her  at  last  a  long 
way  off,  her  handkerchief  still  round  her  head  and 
her  long  thick  hair  blowing  round  her  shoulders, 
rapt  in  contemplation  of  the  fiery  furnace.  Then  a 
shout  went  up  from  the  people  in  the  road,  and  they 
all  ran  back  into  the  potato  field.  Anna  and  the 
princess  stood  rooted  to  the  spot,  clutching  each 
other's  hands.  Letty  looked  round  when  she  heard 
the  shout,  and  began  to  run  too.  The  flaming  outer 
wall  of  the  yard  swayed  and  tottered  and  then  fell 
outwards  with  a  terrific  crash  and  crackling,  filling 
the  road  with  a  smoking  heap  of  rubbish,  and  send- 
ing a  shower  of  sparks  on  a  puff  of  wind  after  the 
flying  spectators. 

The  princess  had  certainly  not  run  so  fast  since 
her  girlhood  as  she  did  with  Anna  towards  the  spot 
in  the  field  where  they  had  last  seen  Letty.  A 
crowd  had  gathered  round  it,  they  could  see,  an 
excited,  gesticulating  crowd.  But  they  found  her 
apparently  unhurt,  sitting  on  the  ground,  surrounded 
by  sympathisers,  and  with  some  one's  coat  over 
her  head.  She  looked  up,  very  pale,  but  smihng 
apologetically  at  her  aunt.  "  It's  all  gone,"  she  said, 
pointing  to  her  head. 

Y 


322  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

"What  is  gone?"  cried  Anna,  dropping  on  her 
knees  besides  her. 

"  Ach  Go  it,  die  Haare — die  herrlichen  Haare  !  " 
lamented  a  woman  in  the  crowd.  The  smell  of 
burnt  hair  explained  what  had  happened. 

Anna  seized  her  in  her  arms.  "You  might 
have  been  killed — you  might  have  been  killed,"  she 
panted,  rocking  her  to  and  fro,  "  Oh,  Letty — who 
saved  you  V 

"  Somebody  put  this  beastly  thing  over  my  head 
— it  smells  of  herrings.  Sparks  got  into  my  hair, 
and  it  all  frizzled  up.  Can't  I  take  this  off,''  It's 
out  now — and  off  too." 

The  princess  felt  all  over  her  head  through  the 
coat,  patting  and  pressing  it  carefully  ;  then  she 
took  the  coat  off,  and  restored  it  with  effusive 
thanks  to  its  sheepish  owner.  There  was  a 
murmur  of  sympathy  from  the  women  as  Letty 
emerged,  shorn  of  those  flowing  curls  that  were 
her  only  glory,  "  Oh  Weh,  die  herrlichen  Haare  !  " 
sighed  the  women  to  one  another,  "  Oh  Weh,  oh 
Weh ! "  But  the  handkerchief  tied  so  tightly 
round  her  head  had  saved  her  from  a  worse  fate  ; 
she  had  been  an  ugly  little  girl  before  —  all  that 
had  happened  was  that  she  looked  now  like  an 
ugly  little  boy. 

"  I  say.  Aunt  Anna,  don't  mind,"  said  Letty  ;  for 
her  aunt  was  crying,  and  kissing  her,  and  tying  and 
untying  the  handkerchief,  and  arranging  and  re- 
arranging it,  and  stroking  and  smoothing  the  singed 
irregular  wisps  of  hair  that  were  left  as  though  she 
loved  them.  "  I'm  frightfully  sorry^I  didn't  know 
you  were  so  fond  of  my  hair." 

"  Come,  we'll  go  to  the  house,"  was  all  Anna  said, 
stumbling  on  to  her  feet  and  putting  her  arm  round 


XXIV  THE  BENEFACTRESS  323 

Letty.     And  they  clung  to  each  other  so  close  that 
they  could  hardly  walk. 

"  We  are  going  indoors  a  moment,"  called  the 
princess,  who  was  very  pale,  to  Axel  as  they  passed 
the  engines. 

He  smiled  across  at  her,  and  lifted  his  hat. 

"  I  never  saw  any  one  quite  so  composed,"  she 
observed  to  Anna,  trying  to  turn  her  attention  to 
other  things.  "  Your  man  Dellwig,  who  has  nothing 
to  do  with  it  all,  is  displaying  the  kind  of  behaviour 
the  people  expect  on  these  occasions.  I  am  sure 
that  Axel  has  puzzled  a  great  many  people  to-night." 

Anna  did  not  answer.  She  was  thinking  only  of 
Letty.  What  a  slender  thread  of  chance  had  saved 
her  from  death,  from  a  dreadful  death,  the  little 
Letty  who  was  under  her  care,  for  whom  she  was 
responsible,  and  whom  she  had  quite  forgotten 
in  her  stupid  interest  in  Axel  Lohm's  affairs. 
Woman-like,  she  felt  very  angry  with  Axel.  What 
did  it  matter  to  her  whether  his  place  burnt  to  ashes 
or  not  ?  But  Letty  mattered  to  her,  her  own  little 
niece,  poor  solitary  Letty,  practically  motherless,  so 
ugly,  and  so  full  of  good  intentions.  She  had  scolded 
her  so  much  about  Klutz  ;  wretched  Klutz,  it  was 
entirely  his  fault  that  Letty  had  been  so  silly,  and 
yet  only  Letty  had  had  the  scoldings.  Anna  held 
her  closer.  In  the  light  of  that  narrow  escape  how 
trivial,  how  indifferent,  all  this  folly  of  love-talk  and 
messages  and  anger  seemed.  For  a  short  space  she 
touched  the  realities,  she  saw  life  and  death  in  their 
true  proportion  ;  and  even  while  she  was  looking  at 
them  with  clear  and  startled  vision  they  were 
blurred  again  into  indistinctness,  they  faded  away 
and  were  gone — rubbed  out  by  the  inevitable  details 
of  the  passing  hour. 


324  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

"  I  thought  as  much,"  said  the  prhicess  as  they 
drew  near  the  house.  "  All  the  doors  wide  open 
and  the  place  deserted."  And  Anna  came  back 
with  a  start  from  the  reality  to  the  well-known 
dream  of  daily  life,  and  immediately  felt  as  though 
that  other  flash  had  been  the  dream,  and  only  this 
were  real. 

The  hall  was  in  darkness,  but  there  was  light 
shining  through  the  chinks  of  a  door,  and  they 
groped  their  way  towards  it.  The  house  was  as 
quiet  as  death.  They  could  hear  the  distant  shouts 
of  the  men  cutting  down  the  trees  in  the  garden,  and 
the  blows  of  the  axes.  The  princess  pushed  open 
the  door  behind  which  the  light  was,  and  they  found 
themselves  in  Axel's  study,  where  the  candles  he  had 
lit  in  order  to  read  Letty's  poem  were  still  guttering 
and  flaring  in  the  draught  from  the  open  window. 
A  clock  on  the  writing-table  showed  that  it  was  past 
midnight.  The  room  looked  very  untidy,  and  ill- 
cared  for. 

"  A  man  without  a  wife,"  said  the  princess,  gazing 
round  at  the  litter,  composed  chiefly  of  cigar-ashes 
and  old  envelopes,  "  is  a  truly  miserable  being. 
What  condition  can  be  more  wretched  than  to  be 
at  the  mercy  of  a  Mamsell  ^  I  shall  go  and  inquire 
into  the  whereabouts  of  this  one.  Axel  will  want 
some  food  when  he  comes  in." 

She  took  up  one  of  the  candles  and  went  out. 
Letty  had  sat  down  at  once  on  the  nearest  chair, 
and  was  looking  very  pale.  Anna  untied  the 
handkerchief,  and  tried  to  arrange  what  was  left  ot 
her  hair.  "I  must  cut  off  these  uneven  ends,"  she 
said,  "  but  there  won't  be  any  scissors  here." 

"  1  say,"  began  Letty,  staring  very  hard  at  her. 

"  I   believe  you   were    terribly  scared,   you    poor 


XXIV  THE  BENEFACTRESS  325 

little  creature,"  said  Anna,  struck  by  her  pale  face, 
and  passing  her  hand  tenderly  over  the  singed  head. 

*'  Oh,  not  much.  A  bit,  of  course.  But  it  was 
soon  over.  Don't  worry.  What  will  mamma  say  to 
my  head  .''  "  And  Letty's  mouth  widened  into  a 
grin  at  this  thought.  "  I  say,"  she  began  again, 
relapsing  into  solemnity. 

*'  Well,  what  .'' "  smiled  Anna,  sitting  down  on 
the  same  chair  and  putting  her  arm  round  her. 

"  You  don't  know  the  whole  of  that  poetry 
business." 

"That  silly  business  with  Herr  Klutz  ^  Oh,  was 
there  more  of  it  ?  Oh,  Letty,  what  did  you  do  more  ? 
I  am  so  tired  of  it,  and  of  him,  and  of  everything. 
Tell  me,  and  then  we'll  forget  it  for  ever." 

"  I'm  afraid  you  won't  forget  it.  Tm  afraid  I'm 
a  bigger  beast  than  you  think,  Aunt  Anna,"  said 
Letty,  with  a  conviction  that  frightened  Anna. 

"  Oh,  Letty,"  she  said  faintly,  "  what  did  you  do.?  " 

"  Why,  I — I  ivill  get  it  out — I — he  was  so 
miserable,  and  went  on  so  when  you  didn't  answer 
that  poetry — that  he  sent  with  the  heart,  you 
know " 

"  Oh  yes,  I  know." 

"  Well,  he  was  in  such  a  state  about  it  that  I — 
that  I  made  up  a  poem,  just  to  comfort  him,  you 
know,  and  keep  him  quiet,  and — and  pretended  it 
came  from  you."  She  threw  back  her  head  and 
looked  up  at  her  aunt.  "  There  now,  it's  out,"  she 
said  defiantly. 

Anna  was  silent  for  a  moment.  "  Was  it — was  it 
very  affectionate  ? "  she  asked  under  her  breath. 
Then  she  slipped  down  onto  the  floor,  and  put  both 
her  arms  round  Letty.  "  Don't  tell  me,"  she  cried, 
laying  her  face  on  Letty's  knees,   "  I  don't  want  to 


326  THE  BENEFACTRESS    chap,  xxiv 

know.  Suppose  you  had  been  dreadfully  hurt  just 
now,  burnt,  or — or  dead,  what  would  it  have 
mattered.'*  Oh,  we  will  forget  all  that  ridiculous 
nonsense,  and  only  never,  never  be  so  silly  again. 
Let  us  be  happy  together,  and  finish  with  Herr 
Klutz  for  ever — it  was  all  so  stupid,  and  so  little 
worth  while."  And  she  put  up  her  face,  and  they 
both  began  to  cry  and  kiss  each  other  through  their 
tears.  And  so  it  came  about  that  Letty  was  in  the 
same  hour  relieved  of  the  burden  on  her  conscience, 
of  most  of  her  hair,  and  was  taken  once  again,  and 
with  redoubled  enthusiasm,  into  Anna's  heart. 
Logic  had  never  been  Anna's  strong  point. 


CHAPTER   XXV 

When  Axel  came  in  two  hours  later,  bringing 
Dellwig  and  Manske  and  two  or  three  other  helpers, — 
farmers,  who  had  driven  across  the  plain  to  do  what 
they  could, — he  found  his  house  lit  up  and  food  and 
drink  set  out  ready  in  the  dining-room. 

Letty  and  Anna  had  had  time  to  recover  from 
their  tears  and  vows,  sundry  small  blisters  on  the 
back  of  Letty 's  neck  had  been  treated  with  cotton 
wool,  and  they  had  emerged  from  their  agitation 
to  a  calmer  state  in  which  the  helping  of  the  princess 
in  the  middle  of  the  night  to  make  somebody  else's 
house  comfortable  was  not  without  its  joys.  The 
Mamsell,  no  more  able  than  the  Kleinwalde  servants 
to  withstand  the  authority  of  the  princess's  name  and 
eye,  had  collected  the  maids  and  worked  with  a  will  ; 
and  when,  all  danger  of  the  fire  spreading  being  over, 
Axel  came  in  dirty  and  smoky  and  scorched,  pre- 
pared to  have  to  hunt  himself  in  the  dark  house  for 
the  refreshment  he  could  not  but  offer  his  helpers,  he 
was  agreeably  surprised  to  find  the  lamp  in  the  hall 
alight,  and  to  be  met  by  a  wide-awake  Mamsell  in  a 
clean  apron  who  proposed  to  provide  the  gentlemen 
with  hot  water.  This  was  very  attentive.  Axel 
had  never  known  her  so  thoughtful.  The  gentlemen, 
however,  with  one  accord  refused  the  hot  water  ;  they 


328  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

would  drink  a  glass  of  wine,  perhaps,  as  Herr  von 
Lohm  so  kindly  suggested,  and  then  go  to  their 
homes  and  beds  as  quickly  as  possible.  Manske,  by 
far  the  grimiest,  was  also  the  most  decided  in  his 
refusal  ;  he  was  a  godly  man,  but  he  did  not  love 
supererogatory  washings,  under  which  heading  surely 
a  washing  at  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  came.  Axel 
left  them  in  the  hall  a  moment,  and  went  into  his 
study  to  fetch  cigars  ;  and  there  he  found  Letty, 
hiding  behind  the  door. 

"  You  here,  young  lady  ^  "  he  exclaimed  surprised, 
stopping  short. 

"Don't  let  any  one  see  me,"  she  whispered. 
"  Princess  Ludwig  and  Aunt  Anna  are  in  the  dining- 
room.  1  ran  in  here  when  I  heard  people  with  you. 
My  hair  is  all  burnt  off." 

"  What,  you  went  too  near  .''  " 

"  Sparks  came  after  me.  Don't  let  them  come 
m 


"  You  were  not  hurt  ^  " 

"  No.  A  little — on  the  back  of  my  neck,  but  it's 
hardly  anything," 

"  I  am  very  glad  your  hair  was  burnt  off,"  said 
Axel  with  great  severity. 

"  So  am  I,"  was  the  hearty  reply.  "  The  tangles 
at  night  were  something  awful." 

He  stood  silent  for  a  moment,  the  cigar-boxes 
under  his  arm,  uncertain  whether  he  ought  not  to 
enlighten  her  as  to  the  reprehensibility  of  her  late 
conduct  in  regard  to  her  aunt  and  Klutz.  Evidently 
her  conscience  was  cloudless  ;  and  yet  she  had  done 
more  harm  than  was  quite  calculable.  Axel  was 
fairly  certain  that  Klutz  had  set  fire  to  the  stables. 
Absolutely  certain  he  could  not  be,  but  the  first 
blaze  had  occurred  so  nearly  at  the  moment   when 


XXV  THE  BENEFACTRESS  329 

Klutz  must  have  reached  them  on  his  way  home, 
that  he  had  hardly  a  doubt  about  it.  It  was  his 
duty  as  Amtsvorsteher  to  institute  inquiries.  If 
these  inquiries  ended  in  the  arrest  of  Klutz,  the 
whole  silly  story  about  Anna  would  come  out,  for 
Klutz  would  be  only  too  eager  to  explain  the 
reasons  that  had  driven  him  to  the  act  ;  and  what 
an  unspeakable  joy  for  the  province,  and  what  a 
delicious  excitement  for  Stralsund  !  He  could  only 
hope  that  Klutz  was  not  the  culprit,  he  could  only 
hope  it  fervently  with  all  his  heart  ;  for  if  he  was, 
the  child  peeping  out  at  him  so  cheerfully  from 
behind  the  door  had  managed  to  make  an  amount 
of  mischief  and  bring  an  amount  of  trouble  on 
Anna  that  staggered  him.  Such  a  little  nonsense, 
and  such  far-reaching  consequences.  He  could  not 
speak  when  he  thought  of  it,  and  strode  past  her 
indignantly,  and  left  the  room  without  a  word. 

"  Now  what's  the  row  with  him  ?  "  Letty  asked 
herself,  her  finger  in  her  mouth  ;  for  Axel  had  looked 
at  her  as  he  passed  with  very  grave  and  angry  eyes. 

The  men  waiting  in  the  hall  were  slightly  dis- 
concerted, on  being  taken  into  the  dining-room,  to 
find  the  Kleinwalde  ladies  there.  None  of  them, 
except  Manske,  liked  ladies  ;  and  ladies  in  the  small 
hours  of  the  morning  were  a  special  weariness 
to  the  flesh.  Dellwig,  having  made  his  two  deep 
bows  to  them,  looked  meaningly  at  his  friends  the 
other  farmers  ;  Miss  Estcourt's  private  engagement 
to  Lohm  seemed  to  be  placed  beyond  a  doubt  by 
her  presence  in  his  house  on  this  occasion. 

"  How  deUghtful  of  vou,"  said  Axel  to  her  in 
English. 

"I  am  glad  to  hear,"  she  replied  stiffly  in 
German,  for  she  was  still  angrv  with  him  because  of 


330  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

Letty's  hair,  "  I  am  glad  to  hear  that  you  will  have 
no  losses  from  this." 

"  Losses  !  "  cried  Manske.  "  On  the  contrary,  it 
is  the  best  thing  that  could  happen — the  very  best 
thing.  Those  stables  have  long  been  almost  unfit 
for  use,  Herr  von  Lohm,  and  I  can  say  from  my 
heart  that  I  was  glad  to  see  them  go.  They  were 
all  to  pieces  even  in  your  father's  time." 

"  Yes,  they  ought  to  have  been  rebuilt  long  ago, 
but  one  has  not  always  the  money  in  one's  pocket. 
Help  yourself,  my  dear  pastor." 

"  Who  is  the  enemy  ^ "  broke  in  Dellwig's  harsh 
voice. 

"Ah,  who  indeed,"  said  Manske,  looking  sad. 
"  That  is  the  melancholy  side  of  the  affair — that 
some  one,  presumably  of  my  parish,  should  commit 
such  a  crime." 

'*  He  has  done  me  a  great  service,  anyhow,"  said 
Axel,  filling  the  glasses, 

"  He  has  imperilled  his  immortal  soul,"  said 
Manske. 

"  Have  you  such  an  enemy  ?  "  asked  Anna, 
surprised. 

"  I  did  not  know  it.  Most  likely  it  was  some 
poor,  half-witted  devil,  or  perhaps — perhaps  a  child." 

"  But  I  saw  the  blaze  immediately  after  I  passed 
you,"  said  Dellwig.  "  You  were  within  a  stone's 
throw  of  the  stables,  going  home.  I  had  hardly 
reached  them  when  the  fire  broke  out.  Did  you 
then  see  no  one  on  the  road  ?  " 

"  No,  I  did  not,"  said  Axel  shortly.  There  was 
an  aggressive  note  in  Dellwig's  voice  that  made  him 
fear  he  was  going  to  be  very  zealous  in  helping  to 
bring  the  delinquent  to  justice. 

"  It  was  the  supper  hour,"  said  Dellwig,  musing. 


XXV  THE  BENEFACTRESS  331 

"  and  the  men  would  all  be  indoors.  Had  you  been 
to  the  stables,  gnadiger  Herr  ?  " 

"  No,  I  had  not.  Take  another  glass  of  wine.  A 
cigar  ?    Whoever  it  was,  he  has  done  me  a  good  turn." 

"  Beyond  all  doubt  he  has,"  said  Dellwig,  his  eyes 
fixed  on  Axel  with  an  odd  expression. 

"  Some  of  us  would  have  no  objection  to  the 
same  thing  happening  at  our  places,"  remarked  one 
of  the  farmers  jocosely. 

"  No  objection  whatever,"  agreed  another  with  a 
laugh. 

"  If  the  man  could  be  trusted  to  display  the 
same  discrimination  everywhere,"  said  the  third. 

"  Joke  not  about  crime,"  said  Manske,  rebuking 
them. 

'•'  The  discrimination  was  certainly  remarkable," 
said  Dellwig. 

"  That  is  why  I  think  it  must  have  been  done  by 
some  person  more  or  less  imbecile,"  said  Axel  ; 
"  otherwise  one  of  the  good  buildings,  whose  destruc- 
tion would  really  have  harmed  me,  would  have  been 
chosen." 

"  He  must  be  hunted  down,  imbecile  or  not," 
said  Dellwig. 

"  I  shall  do  my  duty,"  said  Axel  stiffly. 

"You  may  rely  on  my  help,"  said  Dellwig. 

"  You  are  very  good,"  said  Axel. 

Dellwig's  voice  had  something  orninous  about  it 
that  made  Anna  shiver.  What  a  detestable  man  he 
was,  always  and  at  all  times.  His  whole  manner  to- 
night struck  her  as  specially  offensive.  "  What 
will  be  done  to  the  poor  wretch  when  he  is  caught  } " 
she  asked  Axel. 

*'  He  will  be  imprisoned,"  Dellwig  answered 
promptly. 


332  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

She  turned  her  back  on  him.  "  Even  though  he 
is  half-witted?"  she  said  to  Axel.  "Are  you  obliged 
to  look  for  him  }  Can't  you  leave  him  alone  ^  He 
has  done  you  a  service,  after  all." 

"  I  must  look  for  him,"  said  Axel  ;  "  it  is  my 
duty  as  Amtsvorsteher." 

"And   the  gracious  Miss   should    consider " 

shouted  Dellwig  from  behind. 

"  I'll  consider  nothing,"  said  Anna,  turning  to 
him  quickly. 

"  — should  consider  the  demands  of  justice " 

"  First  the  demands  of  humanity,"  said  Anna, 
her  back  to  him, 

"  Noble,"  murmured  Manske. 

"  The  gracious  Miss's  sentiments  invariably  do 
credit  to  her  heart,"  said  Dellwig,  bowing  pro- 
foundly. 

"  But  not  to  her  head,  he  thinks,"  said  Anna  to 
Axel  in  English,  faintly  smiling. 

"  Don't  talk  to  him,"  Axel  replied  in  a  low 
voice  ;  "  the  man  so  palpably  hates  us  both.  You 
must  go  home.  Where  is  your  carriage  .''  Princess, 
take  her  home." 

"  j^c/i,  Herr  Dellwig,  seien  Sie  so  freundlich " 

began  the  princess  mellifluously ;  and  despatched 
him  in  search  of  Fritz. 

When  they  reached  Kleinwalde,  silent,  worn-out, 
and  only  desiring  to  creep  upstairs  and  into  their 
beds,  they  were  met  by  Frau  von  Treumann  and  the 
baroness,  who  both  wore  injured  and  disapproving 
faces.  Letty  slipped  up  to  her  room  at  once,  afraid 
of  criticisms  of  her  hairlessness. 

"  We  have  waited  for  you  all  night,  Anna,"  said 
Frau  von  Treumann  in  an  aggrieved  voice. 

"  You  oughtn't  to  have,"  said  Anna  wearily. 


XXV  THE  BENEFACTRESS  333 

"  We  could  not  suppose  that  you  were  really 
looking  at  the  fire  all  this  time,"  said  the  baroness. 

"  And  we  were  anxious,"  said  Frau  von  Treu- 
mann.  "  My  dear,  you  should  not  make  us 
anxious." 

"  You  might  have  left  word,  or  taken  us  with 
you,"  said  the  baroness. 

*'  We  are  quite  as  much  interested  in  Herr  von 
Lohm  as  Letty  or  Princess  Ludwig  can  be,"  said 
Frau  von  Treumann. 

"  Nobody  could  tell  us  here  for  certain  whether 
you  had  really  gone  there  or  not." 

"  Nor  could  anybody  give  us  any  information  as 
to  the  extent  of  the  disaster." 

"  We  presumed  the  princess  was  with  you,  but 
even  that  was  not  certain." 

"  My  dear  baroness,"  murmured  the  princess, 
untying  her  shawl,  "  only  you  would  have  had  a 
doubt  of  it." 

*'  The  reflection  in  the  sky  faded  hours  ago,"  said 
Frau  von  Treumann. 

"And  yet  you  did  not  return,"  said  the  baroness. 
"  Where  did  you  go  afterwards  ?  " 

"  Oh,  I'll  tell  you  everything  to-morrow.  Good- 
night," said  Anna,  candle  in  hand. 

"  What  !  Now  that  we  have  waited,  and  in 
such  anxiety,  you  will  tell  us  nothing  .''  " 

"  There  really  is  nothing  to  tell.  And  I  am  so 
tired — good-night." 

"  We  have  kept  the  servants  up  and  the  kettle 
boiling  in  case  you  should  want  coffee." 

"  That  was  very  kind,  but  I  only  want  bed. 
Good-night." 

"  We  too  were  weary,  but  you  see  we  have 
waited  in  spite  of  it." 


334  THE  BENEFACTRESS     chap,  xxv 

"  Oh,  you  shouldn't  have.  You  will  be  so  th-ed. 
Good-night." 

She  went  upstairs,  pulling  herself  up  each  step  by 
the  baluster.  The  clock  on  the  landing  struck  half- 
past  three.  Was  it  not  Napoleon,  she  thought,  who 
said  something  to  the  point  about  three-o'clock-in- 
the-morning  courage  ?  Had  no  one  ever  said  any- 
thing to  the  point  about  three-o'clock-in-the-morning 
love  for  one's  fellow-creatures  }  "  Good-night,"  she 
said  once  more,  turning  her  head  and  nodding 
wearily  to  them  as  they  watched  her  from  below  with 
indignant  faces. 

She  glanced  at  the  clock,  and  went  into  her  room 
dejectedly  ;  for  she  had  made  a  startling  discovery  : 
at  three  o'clock  in  the  morning  her  feeling  towards 
the  Chosen  was  one  of  indifference  verging  on 
dislike. 


CHAPTER   XXVI 

Looking  up  from  her  breakfast  the  morning  after 
the  fire  to  see  who  it  was  riding  down  the  street, 
Frau  Manske  beheld  Dellwig  coming  towards  her 
garden  gate.  Her  husband  was  in  his  dressing-gown 
and  slippers,  a  costume  he  affected  early  in  the  day, 
and  they  were  taking  their  coifee  this  fine  weather  at 
a  table  in  their  roomy  porch.  There  was,  therefore, 
no  possibility  of  hiding  the  dressing-gown,  nor  yet 
the  fact  that  her  cap  was  not  as  fresh  as  a  cap  on 
which  the  great  Dellwig's  eyes  were  to  rest  should 
be.  She  knew  that  Dellwig  was  not  a  star  of  the 
first  magnitude  like  Herr  von  Lohm,  but  he  was  a 
very  magnificent  specimen  of  those  of  the  second 
order,  and  she  thought  him  much  more  imposing 
than  Axel,  whose  quiet  ways  she  had  never  under- 
stood. Dellwig  snubbed  her  so  systematically  and 
so  brutally  that  she  could  not  but  respect  and  admire 
him  :  she  was  one  of  those  women  who  enjoy  kissing 
the  rod.  In -a  great  flutter  she  hurried  to  the  gate 
to  open  it  for  him,  receiving  in  return  neither  thanks 
nor  greeting.  "  Good  morning,  good  morning,"  she 
said,  bowing  repeatedly.  "  A  fine  morning,  Herr 
Dellwig." 

''Where's    Klutz.?"     he    asked    curtly,    neither 
getting  oflF  his  horse  nor  taking  off  his  hat. 


236  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

"  Oh,  the  poor  young  man,  Herr  Dellwig  !  "  she 
began  with  uplifted  hands.  "  He  has  had  a  letter 
from  home,  and  is  much  upset.      His  father " 

"Where  is  he  .''  " 

"  His  father  .''     In  bed,  and  not  expected  to " 

*'  Where's  Klutz,  I  say — young  Klutz  ?  Herr 
Manske,  just  step  down  here  a  minute — good  morn- 
ing.     I  want  to  see  your  vicar." 

"  My  vicar  has  had  bad  news  from  home,  and  is 
gone." 

«  Gone  ?  " 

*'  This  very  morning.  Poor  fellow,  his  aged 
father " 

"  I  don't  care  a  curse  for  his  aged  father.  What 
train  ?  " 

"  The  half-past  nine  train.  He  went  in  the  post- 
cart  at  seven." 

Dellwig  jerked  his  horse  round,  and  without  a 
word  rode  away  in  the  direction  of  Stralsund.  "  I'll 
catch  him  yet,"  he  thought  ;  and  rode  as  hard  as  he 
could. 

"What  can  he  want  with  the  vicar.?  "  wondered 
Frau  Manske. 

"  A  rough  manner,  but  I  doubt  not  a  good  heart," 
said  her  husband,  sighing  ;  and  he  folded  his  flapping 
dressing-gown  pensively  about  his  legs. 

Kkitz  was  on  the  platform  waiting  for  the  Berlin 
train,  due  in  five  minutes,  when  Dellwig  came  up 
behind  and  laid  a  hand  on  his  shoulder. 

"  What !  Are  you  going  to  jump  out  of  your 
skin.?  "  Dellwig  inquired  with  a  burst  of  laughter. 

Klutz  stared  at  him  speechlessly  after  that  first 
start,  waiting  for  what  would  follow.  His  face  was 
ghastly. 

"  Father    so    bad,    eh .? "    said    Dellwig    heartily. 


xxvr  THE  BENEFACTRESS  337 

"  Nerves  all  gone,  what  ?  Well,  it's  enough  to  make 
a  boy  look  pale  to  have  his  father  on  his  last " 

"  What  do  you  want?  "  whispered  Klutz  with  pale 
lips.  Several  persons  who  knew  Dellwig  were  on  the 
platform,  and  were  staring. 

"  Why,"  said  Dellwig,  sinking  his  voice  a  little, 
"  you  have  heard  of  the  fire — I  did  not  see  you  help- 
ing, by  the  way.''  You  were  with  Herr  von  Lohm 
last  night — don't  look  so  frightened,  man — if  1  did 
not  know  about  your  father  I'd  think  there  was 
something  on  your  mind.  I  only  want  to  ask  you — 
there  is  a  strange  rumour  going  about " 

"  I  am  going  home — home,  do  you  hear  .'' "  said 
Klutz  wildly. 

"Certainly  you  are.  No  one  wants  to  stop  you. 
Who  do  you  think  they  say  set  fire  to  the  stables  ^  " 

Klutz  looked  as  though  he  would  faint. 

"They  say  Lohm  did  it  himself,"  said  Dellwig  in 
a  low  voice,  his  eyes  fixed  on  the  young  man's  face. 

Klutz's  ears  burnt  suddenly  bright  red.  He 
looked  down,  looked  up,  looked  over  his  shoulder  in 
the  direction  from  whence  the  train  would  come. 
Small  cold  beads  of  agitation  stood  out  on  his  narrow 
forehead. 

"  The  point  is,"  said  Dellwig,  who  had  not  missed 
a  movement  of  that  twitching  fice,  "  that  you  must 
have  been  with  Lohm  nearly  till  the  time  when — 
you  went  straight  to  him  after  leaving  us.?  " 

Klutz  bowed  his  head. 

"Then  you  couldn't  have  left  him  long  before  it 
broke  out.  I  met  him  myself  between  the  stables 
and  his  gate  five  minutes — two  minutes — before  the 
fire.  He  went  past  without  a  word,  in  a  great  hurry, 
as  though  he  hoped  I  had  not  recognised  him.  Now 
tell  me  what  you  know  about  it.     Just  tell  me  if  you 

z 


338  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

saw  anything.  It  is  to  both  our  interests  to  cut  his 
claws," 

Klutz  pressed  his  hands  together,  and  looked 
round  again  for  the  train. 

"  Do  you  know  what  will  certainly  happen  if  you 
try  to  be  generous  and  shield  him  ?  He'll  say  you 
did  it,  and  so  get  rid  of  you  and  hush  up  the  affair 
with  Miss  Estcourt.  I  can  see  by  your  face  you 
know  who  did  it.     Every  one  is  saying  it  is  Lohm." 

"But  why.?  Why  should  he?  Why  should  he 
burn  his  own — ■ — "  stammered  Klutz,  in  dreadful 
agitation. 

"Why.''  Because  they  were  in  ruins,  and  well 
insured.  Because  he  had  no  money  for  new  ones  ; 
and  because  now  the  insurance  company  will  give 
him  the  money.  The  thing  is  so  plain — I  am  so 
convinced  that  he  did  it ^" 

They  heard  the  train  coming.  Klutz  stooped 
down  quickly  and  clutched  his  bag.  "  No,  no,"  said 
Dellwig,  catching  his  arm  and  gripping  it  tight,  "  I 
shall  not  let  you  go  till  you  say  what  you  know.  You 
or  Lohm  to  be  punished— -which  do  you  prefer .?  " 

Klutz   gave   Dellwig   a   despairing,   hunted   look. 

"  He — he "  he  began,  struggling  to  get  the  words 

over  his  dry  lips. 

"  He  did  it  }     You  know  it }     You  saw  it }  " 

"  Yes,  yes,  I  saw  it — I  saw  him " 

Klutz  burst  into  a  wild  fit  of  sobbing. 

"  Armer  Junge^^  cried  Dellwig  very  loud,  patting 
his  back  very  hard.  "  It  is  indeed  terrible — one's 
father  so  ill — -on  his  deathbed  —  and  such  a  long 
journey  of  suspense  before  you "  And  sympa- 
thising at  the  top  of  his  voice  he  looked  for  an  empty 
compartment,  hustled  him  into  it,  pushing  him  up 
the  high  steps  and  throwing  his  bag  in  after  him,  and 


XXVI  THE  BENEFACTRESS  339 

then  stood  talking  loudly  of  sick  fathers  till  the  last 
moment.  "  I  trust  you  will  find  the  Herr  Papa 
better  than  you  expect,"  he  shouted  after  the  moving 
train.  "  Don't  give  way — don't  give  way.  That  is 
our  vicar,"  he  explained  to  an  acquaintance  who  was 
standing  near  ;  "  an  only  son,  and  he  has  just  heard 
that  his  father  is  dying.  He  is  overwhelmed,  poor 
devil,  with  grief." 

To  his  wife  on  his  arrival  home  he  said,  "  My  dear 
Theresa," — a  mode  of  address  only  used  on  the  rare 
occasions  of  supremest  satisfaction,  —  "my  dear 
Theresa,  you  may  set  your  mind  at  rest  about  our 
friend  Lohm.  The  Miss  will  never  marry  him,  and 
he  himself  will  not  trouble  us  much  longer."  And 
they  had  a  short  conversation  in  private,  and  later 
on  at  dinner  they  opened  a  bottle  of  champagne,  and 
explaining  to  the  servant  that  it  was  an  aunt's  birth- 
day, drank  the  aunt's  health  over  and  over  again, 
and  were  merrier  than  they  had  been  for  years. 


CHAPTER   XXVII 

It  was  an  odd  and  a  nearly  invariable  consequence  of 
Anna's  cold  morning  bath  that  she  made  resolutions 
in  great  numbers.  The  morning  after  the  fire  there 
were  more  of  them  than  ever.  In  a  glow  she  assured 
herself  that  she  was  not  going  to  allow  dejection  and 
discouragement  to  take  possession  of  her  so  easily; 
that  she  would  not,  in  future,  be  so  much  the  slave  of 
her  bodily  condition,  growing  selfish,  indifferent,  un- 
kind, in  proportion  as  she  grew  tired.  What,  she 
asked,  tying  her  waist-ribbon  with  great  vigour,  was 
the  use  of  having  a  soul  and  its  longings  after  per- 
fection if  it  was  so  absolutely  the  slave  of  its  encasing 
body,  if  it  only  received  permission  from  the  body 
to  flutter  its  wings  a  little  in  those  rare  moments 
when  its  master  was  completely  comfortable  and  com- 
pletely satisfied  ?  She  was  ashamed  of  herself  for 
being  so  easily  affected  by  the  heat  and  stress  of  the 
days  with  the  Chosen.  How  was  it  that  her  ideals 
were  crushed  out  of  sight  continually  by  the  mere 
weight  of  the  details  of  everyday  existence  ?  She 
would  keep  them  more  carefully  in  view,  pursue  them 
with  a  more  unfaltering  patience — in  a  word,  she  was 
going  to  be  wise.  Life  was  such  a  little  thing,  she 
reflected — so  very  quickly  done  ;  how  foolish,  then,  to 
forget  so  constantly  that  everything  that  vexed  her 


CH.  XXVII       THE  BENEFACTRESS  341 

and  made  her  sorry  was  flying  past  and  away  even 
while  it  grieved  her,  dwindling  in  the  distance  with 
every  hour,  and  never  coming  back.  What  she  had 
done  and  suffered  last  year,  how  indifferent — of  what 
infinitely  little  importance — it  was  now  ;  and  yet  she 
had  been  very  strenuous  about  it  at  the  time,  inchned 
to  resist  and  struggle,  taking  it  overmuch  to  heart, 
acting  as  though  it  were  always  going  to  be  there. 
Oh,  she  would  be  wise  in  future,  enjoying  all  there 
was  to  enjoy,  loving  all  there  was  to  love,  and 
shutting  her  eyes  to  the  rest.  She  would  not,  for 
instance,  expect  more  from  her  Chosen  than  they, 
being  as  they  were,  could  give.  Obviously  they 
could  not  give  her  more  than  they  possessed,  either 
of  love,  or  comprehension,  or  charitableness,  or  any- 
thing else  that  was  precious  ;  and  it  was  because  she 
looked  for  more  that  she  was  for  ever  feeling  dis- 
appointed. She  would  take  them  as  they  were,  being 
happy  in  what  they  did  give  her,  and  ignoring  what 
was  less  excellent.  She  herself  was  irritating,  she  was 
sure,  and  often  she  saw  did  produce  an  irritating 
effect  on  the  Chosen.  Of  sundry  minor  failings — so 
minor  that  she  was  ashamed  of  having  noticed  them, 
but  which  had  yet  done  much  towards  making  the 
days  difficult — she  tried  not  to  think.  Indeed,  they 
could  hardly  be  made  the  subject  of  resolutions  at  all, 
they  were  so  very  trivial.  They  included  a  habit 
Frau  von  Treumann  had  of  shutting  every  window 
and  door  that  stood  open,  whatever  the  weather  was, 
and  however  pointedly  the  others  gasped  for  air  ;  the 
exceedingly  odd  behaviour,  forced  upon  her  notice 
four  times  a  day,  of  Fraulein  Kuhrauber  at  table  ; 
and  an  insatiable  curiosity  displayed  by  the  baroness 
in  regard  to  other  people's  correspondence  and  ser- 
vants— every  postcard  she  read,  every  envelope  she 


342  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap 

examined,  every  telegram,  for  some  always  plausible 
reason,  she  thought  it  her  duty  to  open  ;  and  her 
interest  in  the  doings  of  the  maids  was  unquenchable. 
"These  are  little  ways,"  thought  Anna,  "that 
don't  matter."  And  she  thought  it  impatiently,  for 
the  little  ways  persisted  in  obtruding  themselves  on 
her  remembrance  in  the  middle  of  her  fine  plans  of 
future  wisdom.  "  If  we  could  all  get  outside  our 
bodies,  even  for  one  day,  and  simply  go  about  in  our 
souls,  how  nice  it  would  be  !  "  she  sighed  ;  but  mean- 
while the  souls  of  the  Chosen  were  still  enveloped  in 
aggressive  bodies  that  continued  to  shut  windows, 
open  telegrams,  and  convey  food  into  their  mouths 
on  knives. 

The  one  belonging  to  Frau  von  Treumann  was 
at  that  moment  engaged  in  writing  with  feverish 
haste  to  Karlchen,  bidding  him  lose  no  time  in 
coming,  for  mischief  was  afoot,  and  Anna  was  show- 
ing an  alarming  interest  in  the  affairs  of  that  specious 
hypocrite  Lohm.  "  Come  unexpectedly,"  she  wrote  ; 
"  it  will  be  better  to  take  her  by  surprise  ;  and 
above  all  things  come  at  once." 

She  gave  the  letter  herself  to  the  postman,  and 
then,  having  nothing  to  do  but  needlework  that  need 
not  be  done,  and  feeling  out  of  sorts  after  the  long 
night's  watch,  and  uneasy  about  Axel  Lohm's  evident 
attraction  for  Anna,  she  went  into  the  drawing-room 
and  spent  the  morning  elaborately  differing  from  the 
baroness. 

They  differed  often ;  it  could  hardly  be  called 
quarrelling,  but  there  was  a  continual  fire  kept  up 
between  them  of  remarks  that  did  not  make  for 
peace.  Over  their  needlework  they  addressed  those 
observations  to  each  other  that  were  most  calculated 
to  annoy.     Frau  von  Treumann  would  boast  of  her 


XXVII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  343 

ancestral  home  at  Kadenstein,  its  magnificence,  and 
the  style  in  which,  with  a  superb  disregard  for  expense, 
her  brother  kept  it  up,  well  knowing  that  the  baroness 
had  had  no  home  more  ancestral  than  a  flat  in  a 
provincial  town  ;  and  the  baroness  would  retort  by 
relating,  as  an  instance  of  the  grievous  slanderousness 
of  so-called  friends,  a  palpably  malicious  story  she 
had  heard  of  manure  heaps  before  the  ancestral  door, 
and  of  unprevented  poultry  in  the  Schloss  itself. 
Once,  stirred  beyond  the  bounds  of  prudence  enjoined 
by  Karlchen,  Frau  von  Treumann  had  begun  to 
sympathise  with  the  Elmreich  family's  misfortune  in 
including  a  member  like  Lolli  ;  but  had  been  so 
much  frightened  by  her  victim's  immediate  and 
dreadful  pallor  that  she  had  turned  it  off,  deciding 
to  leave  the  revelation  of  her  full  knowledge  of  Lolli 
to  Karlchen. 

The  only  occasions  on  which  they  agreed  were 
when  together  they  attacked  Fraulein  Kuhrriuber  ; 
and  more  than  once  already  that  hapless  young 
woman  had  gone  away  to  cry.  Anna's  thoughts  had 
been  filled  lately  by  other  things,  and  she  had  not 
paid  much  attention  to  what  was  being  talked  about ; 
but  yet  it  seemed  to  her  that  Frau  von  Treumann 
and  the  baroness  had  discovered  a  subject  on  which 
Fraulein  Kuhrauber  was  abnormally  sensitive  and 
secretive,  and  that  again  and  again  when  they  were 
tired  of  sparring  together  they  returned  to  this  sub- 
ject, always  in  amiable  tones  and  with  pleasant  looks, 
and  always  reducing  the  poor  Fraulein  to  a  pitiable 
state  of  confusion  ;  which  state  being  reached,  and 
she  gone  out  to  hide  her  misery  in  her  bedroom, 
they  would  look  at  each  other  and  smile. 

In  all  that  concerned  Fraulein  Kuhrauber  they 
were   in   perfect   accord,   and   absolutely  pitiless.      It 


344  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

troubled  Anna,  for  the  Fraulein  was  the  one  member 
of  the  trio  who  was  really  happy — so  long,  that  is, 
as  the  others  left  her  alone.  Invigorated  by  her  cold 
tub  into  a  belief  in  the  possibility  of  peace-making, 
she  made  one  more  resolution  :  to  establish  without 
delay  concord  between  the  three.  It  was  so  clearly 
to  their  own  advantage  to  live  together  in  harmony  ; 
surely  a  calm  talking-to  would  make  them  see  that, 
and  desire  it.  They  were  not  children,  neither  were 
they,  presumably,  more  unreasonable  than  other 
people  ;  nor  could  they,  she  thought,  having  suffered 
so  much  themselves,  be  intentionally  unkind.  That 
very  day  she  would  make  things  straight. 

She  could  not  of  course  dream  that  the  periodical 
putting  to  confusion  of  Fraulein  Kuhrauber  was  the 
one  thing  that  kept  the  other  two  alive.  They  found 
life  at  Kleinwalde  terribly  dull.  There  were  no  neigh- 
bours, and  they  did  not  like  forests.  The  princess 
hardly  showed  herself;  Anna  was  English,  besides 
being  more  or  less  of  a  lunatic, — the  combination,  when 
you  came  to  think  of  it,  was  alarming, — and  they  soon 
wearied  of  pouring  into  each  other's  highly  sceptical 
ears  descriptions  of  the  splendours  of  their  prosperous 
days.  The  visits  of  the  parson  had  at  first  been  a 
welcome  change,  for  they  were  both  religious  women 
who  loved  to  impress  a  new  listener  with  the  amount 
of  their  faith  and  resignation  ;  but  when  they  knew 
him  a  little  better,  and  had  said  the  same  things 
several  times,  and  found  that  as  soon  as  they  paused 
he  began  to  expatiate  on  the  advantages  and  joys  of 
their  present  mode  of  life  with  Miss  Estcourt,  of 
which  no  one  had  been  talking,  they  were  bored, 
and  left  off  being  pleased  to  see  him,  and  fell  back 
for  amusement  on  their  own  bickerings,  and  the 
probing  of  Fraulein  Kuhrauber's  tender  places. 


xxvir  THE  BENEFACTRESS  345 

About  midday  Anna,  who  had  been  writing 
German  letters  all  the  morning,  helped  by  the  prin- 
cess,— letters  of  inquiry  concerning  a  new  teacher  for 
Letty, — came  round  by  the  path  outside  the  drawing- 
room  window  looking  for  the  Chosen,  and  prepared 
to  talk  to  them  of  concord.  The  window  was  shut, 
and  she  knocked  on  the  pane,  trying  to  see  into  the 
shady  room.  It  was  a  broiUng  day,  and  she  had 
no  hat  ;  therefore  she  knocked  again,  and  held  her 
hands  above  her  head,  for  the  sun  was  intolerable.  She 
wore  one  of  her  last  summer's  dresses,  a  lilac  muslin 
that  in  spite  of  its  age  seemed  in  Kleinwalde  to  be 
quite  absurdly  pretty.  She  herself  looked  prettier 
than  ever  out  there  in  the  light,  the  sun  beating 
down  on  her  burnished  hair. 

"Anna  wants  to  come  in,"  said  Frau  von  Treu- 
mann,  looking  up  from  her  embroidery  at  the  figure 
in  the  sun. 

"  I  suppose  she  does,"  said  the  baroness  tranquilly. 

Neither  of  them  moved. 

Anna  knocked  again. 

"  She  will  be  sunstruck,"  observed  Frau  von  Treu- 
mann. 

"I  think  she  will,"  agreed  the  baroness. 

Neither  of  them  moved. 

Anna  stooped  down,  and  tried  to  look  into  the 
room,  but  could  see  nothing.  She  knocked  again  ; 
waited  a  moment ;  and  then  went  away. 

The  two  ladies  embroidered  in  silence. 

*'  Absurd  old  maid,"  Frau  von  Treumann  thought, 
glancing  at  the  baroness.  "  As  though  a  married 
woman  of  my  age  and  standing  could  get  up  and 
open  windows  when  she  is  in  the  room," 

"  Ridiculous  old  Treumann,"  thought  the  baroness, 
outwardly  engrossed  by  her  work.     "  What  does  she 


346  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

think,  I  wonder  ?  I  shall  teach  her  that  I  am  as  good 
as  herself,  and  am  not  here  to  open  windows  any 
more  than  she  is." 

"  Why,  you  aj-c  here,"  said  Anna  surprised, 
coming  in  at  the  door. 

"  Where  have  you  been  all  the  morning  .'' "  in- 
quired Frau  von  Treumann  amiably.  "  We  hardly 
ever  see  you,  dear  Anna.  I  hope  you  have  come 
now  to  sit  with  us  a  little  while.  Come,  sit  next  to 
me,  and  let  us  have  a  nice  chat." 

She  made  room  for  her  on  the  sofa. 

"Where  is  Emilie  .'^ "  Anna  asked;  Emilie  was 
Fraulein  Kuhrauber,  and  Anna  was  the  only  person 
in  the  house  who  called  her  so. 

"  She  came  in  some  time  ago,  but  went  away  at 
once.      She  does  not,  I  fear,  feel  at  ease  with  us." 

"  That  is  exactly  what  I  want  to  talk  about,"  said 
Anna. 

"  Is  it .?  Why,  how  strange.  Last  night,  while 
we  were  waiting  for  you,  the  baroness  and  I  had  a 
serious  conversation  about  Fraulein  Kuhrauber,  and 
we  decided  to  tell  you  what  conclusions  we  came  to 
on  the  first  opportunity." 

"  Certainly,"  said  the  baroness. 

"  It  is  surprising  that  Princess  Ludwig  should  not 
have  opened  your  eyes." 

"  It  is  truly  surprising,"  said  the  baroness. 

"  But  they  are  open.  And  they  have  seen  that 
you  are  not  very — not  quite — well,  not  very  kind  to 
poor  Emilie.     Don't  you  like  her.''  " 

"  My  dear  Anna,  we  have  found  it  quite  impossible 
to  like  Fraulein  Kuhrauber." 

"  Or  even  endure  her,"  amended  the  baroness. 

"  And  yet  I  never  saw  a  kinder,  more  absolutely 
amiable  creature,"  said  Anna. 


XXVII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  347 

"  You  are  deceived  in  her,"  said  Frau  von  Treu- 
mann. 

"  We  have  found  out  that  she  is  here  under  false 
pretences,"  said  the  baroness, 

"  Which,"  said  Frau  von  Treumann,  unable  to 
forbear  glancing  at  the  baroness,  "  is  a  very  dreadful 
thing." 

"  Certainly,"  agreed  the  baroness. 

Anna  looked  from  one  to  the  other.  "Well?" 
she  said,  as  they  did  not  go  on.  Then  the  thought 
of  her  peace-making  errand  came  into  her  mind,  and 
her  certainty  that  she  only  needed  to  talk  quietly  to 
these  two  in  order  to  convince.  "  W^hat  do  you 
think  I  came  in  to  say  to  you  ?  "  she  said,  with  a  low 
laugh  in  which  there  was  no  mirth.  "  I  was  going 
to  propose  that  you  should  both  begin  now  to  love 
Emilie.  You  have  made  her  cry  so  often — I  have 
seen  her  coming  out  of  this  room  so  often  with  red 
eyes — that  I  was  sure  you  must  be  tired  of  that  now, 
and  would  like  to  begin  to  live  happily  with  her, 
loving  her  for  all  that  is  so  good  in  her,  and  not 
minding  the  rest." 

"  My  dear  Anna,"  said  Frau  von  Treumann 
testily,  "  it  is  out  of  the  question  that  ladies  of  birth 
and  breeding  should  tolerate  her." 

"  Certainly  it  is,"  emphatically  agreed  the  baroness. 

"  And  why  .f^  Isn't  she  a  woman  like  ourselves? 
Wasn't  she  poor  and  miserable  too  ?  And  won't  she 
go  to  heaven  by  and  by,  just  as  we,  I  hope,  shall  ? " 

They  thought  this  profane. 

"  We  shall  all,  I  trust,  meet  in  heaven,"  said  Frau 
von  Treumann  gently.  Then  she  went  on,  clearing 
her  throat,  "  But  meanwhile  we  think  it  our  duty  to 
ask  you  if  you  know  what  her  father  was." 

"  He  was  a  man  of  letters,"  said  Anna,  remember- 


348  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

ing  the  very  words  of  Fraulein  Kuhrauber's  reply  to 
her  inquiries. 

"  Exactly.     But  of  what  letters  ?  " 

"  She  tried  to  give  us  that  same  answer,"  said  the 
baroness. 

"Of  what  letters.^"  repeated  Anna,  looking 
puzzled. 

"  He  carried  all  the  letters  he  ever  had  in  a  bag," 
said  Frau  von  Treumann. 

"  In  a  bag.^  " 

"In  a  word,  dear  child,  he  was  a  postman,  and 
she  has  told  you  untruths." 

There  was  a  silence.  Anna  pushed  at  a  neigh- 
bouring footstool  with  the  toe  of  her  shoe.  "  It  is 
not  pretty,"  she  said  after  a  while,  her  eyes  on  the 
footstool,  "  to  tell  untruths." 

"  Certainly  it  is  not,"  agreed  the  baroness. 

"  Especially  in  this  case,"  said  Frau  von  Treumann. 

"  Yes,  especially  in  this  case,"  said  Anna,  looking 
up. 

"  We  thought  you  could  not  know  the  truth,  and 
felt  certain  you  would  be  shocked.  Now  you  will 
understand  how  impossible  it  is  for  ladies  of  family 
to  associate  with  such  a  person,  and  we  are  sure  that 
you  will  not  ask  us  to  do  so,  but  will  send  her  away." 

"  No,"  said  Anna,  in  a  low  voice. 

"  No  what,  dear  child  ?  "  inquired  Frau  von  Treu- 
mann sweetly. 

*'  I  cannot  send  her  away." 

"  You  cannot  send  her  away  ?  "  they  cried  together. 
Both  let  their  work  drop  into  their  laps,  and  both 
stared  blankly  at  Anna,  who  looked  at  the  footstool. 

"  Have  you  made  a  lifelong  contract  with 
her  ^ "  asked  Frau  von  Treumann,  with  great  heat, 
no  such  contract  having  been  made  in  her  own  case. 


XXVII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  349 

"  I  did  not  quite  say  what  I  mean,"  said  Anna, 
looking  up  again.  "  I  do  not  mean  that  I  cannot 
really  send  her  away,  for  of  course  I  can  if  I  choose. 
Exactly  what  1  mean  is  that  I  will  not." 

There  was  a  pause.  Neither  of  the  ladies  had 
expected  such  an  attitude. 

"  This  is  very  serious,"  then  observed  Frau  von 
Treumann  helplessly.  She  took  up  her  work  again 
and  pulled  at  the  stitches,  making  knots  in  the  thread. 
Both  she  and  the  baroness  had  felt  so  certain  that 
Anna  would  be  properly  incensed  when  she  heard  the 
truth.  Her  manner  without  doubt  suggested  dis- 
pleasure, but  the  displeasure,  strangely  enough, 
seemed  to  be  directed  against  themselves  instead  of 
Fraulein  Kuhrauber.  What  could  they,  with  dignity, 
do  next  ?  Frau  von  Treumann  felt  angry  and  per- 
plexed. She  remembered  Karlchen's  advice  in  regard 
to  ultimatums,  and  wished  she  had  remembered  it 
sooner  ;  but  who  could  have  imagined  the  extent  of 
Anna's  folly  ?  Never,  she  reflected,  had  she  met 
any  one  quite  so  foolish. 

"  It  is  a  case  for  the  police,"  burst  out  the 
baroness  passionately,  all  the  pride  of  all  the  Elm- 
reichs  surging  up  in  revolt  against  a  fate  threatening 
to  condemn  her  to  spend  the  rest  of  her  days  with 
the  progeny  of  a  postman.  *'  Your  advertisement 
specially  mentioned  good  birth  as  essential,  and  she  is 
here  under  false  pretences.  You  have  the  proofs  in 
her  letters.  She  is  within  reach  of  the  arm  of  the 
law." 

Anna  could  not  help  smiling,  "  Don't  denounce 
her,"  she  said.  "  I  should  be  appalled  if  anything 
approaching  the  arm  of  the  law  got  into  my  house. 
I'll  burn  the  proofs  after  dinner."  Then  she  turned 
to  Frau  von  Treumann.     "  If  you  think  it  over,"  she 


350  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

said,  "  I  know  you  will  not  wish  me  to  be  so  merciless, 
so  pitiless,  as  to  send  Emilie  back  to  misery  only 
because  her  father,  who  has  been  dead  thirty  years, 
was  a  postman." 

"  But,  Anna,  you  must  be  reasonable — you  must 
look  at  the  other  side.  No  Treumann  has  ever  yet 
been  required  to  associate " 

"  But  if  he  was  a  good  man  ^  If  he  did  his  work 
honestly,  and  said  his  prayers,  and  behaved  himself? 
We  have  no  reason  for  doubting  that  he  was  a  most 
excellent  postman,"  she  went  on,  a  twinkle  in  her 
eye  ;  "  punctual,  diligent,  and  altogether  praise- 
worthy." 

"  Then  you  object  to  nothing  ^  "  cried  the  baroness 
with  extraordinary  bitterness.  "  You  draw  the  line 
nowhere  ^  All  the  traditions  and  prejudices  of  gentle- 
folk are  supremely  indifferent  to  you  ^  " 

*'Oh,  I  object  to  a  great  many  things.  I  would 
have  liked  it  better  if  the  postman  had  really  been 
the  literary  luminary  poor  Emilie  said  he  was — for 
her  sake,  and  my  sake,  and  your  sakes.  And  I  don't 
like  untruths,  and  never  shall.  But  I  do  like  Emilie, 
and  I  forgive  it  all." 

"  Then  she  is  to  remain  here  ?  " 

"  Yes,  as  long  as  she  wants  to.  And  do,  do  try 
to  see  how  good  she  is,  and  how  much  there  is  to 
love  in  her.  You  have  done  her  a  real  service," 
Anna  added,  smiling,  "  for  now  she  won't  have  it  on 
her  mind  any  more,  and  will  be  able  to  be  really 
happy." 

The  baroness  gathered  up  her  work  and  rose. 
Frau  von  Treumann  looked  at  her  nervously,  and 
rose  too. 

"  Then "  began  the  baroness,  pale  with  out- 
raged pride  and  propriety. 


XXVII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  351 

"Then   really "  began   Frau  von  Treumann 

more  faintly,  but  feeling  bound  in  this  matter  to 
follow  her  example.  After  all,  they  could  always 
allow  themselves  to  be  persuaded  to  change  their 
minds  again. 

Anna  got  up  too,  and  they  stood  facing  each 
other.  Something  awful  was  going  to  happen,  she 
felt,  but  what  ^  Were  they,  she  wondered,  both 
going  to  give  her  notice  ? 

The  baroness,  drawn  up  to  her  full  height,  looked 
at  her,  opened  her  lips  to  complete  her  sentence,  and 
shut  them  again.  She  was  exceedingly  agitated,  and 
held  her  little  thin,  claw-like  hands  tightly  together 
to  hide  how  they  were  shaking.  All  she  had  left  in 
the  world  was  the  pride  of  being  an  Eimreich  and  a 
baroness  ;  and  as,  with  the  relentless  years,  she  had 
grown  poorer,  plainer,  more  insignificant,  so  had  this 
pride  increased  and  strengthened,  until,  together  with 
her  passionate  propriety  and  horror  of  everything 
in  the  least  doubtful  in  the  way  of  reputations, 
it  had  come  to  be  the  very  mainspring  of  her  being, 

"  Then "  she  began  again,  with  a  great  effort  ; 

for  she  remembered  how  there  hud  actually  been  no 
food  sometimes  when  she  was  hungry,  and  no  fire  when 
she  was  cold,  and  no  doctor  when  she  was  sick,  and 
how  severe  weather  had  seemed  to  set  in  invariably 
at  those  times  when  she  had  least  money,  making  her 
first  so  much  hungrier  than  usual,  and  afterwards  so 
much  more  sick,  as  though  nature  itself  owed  her  a 
grudge. 

"  Oh,  these  ultimatums  !  "  inwardly  deplored  Frau 
von  I'reumann  ;  the  baroness  was  very  absurd,  she 
thought,  to  take  the  thing  so  tragically. 

And  at  that  instant  the  door  was  thrown  open, 
and    without    waiting    to    be    announced,    Karlchen, 


352  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

resplendent  in  his  hussar  uniform,  and  beaming  from 
ear  to  ear,  hastened,  clanking,  into  the  room. 

"  Karlchen  !  Du  engelsgute  Junge  !  "  shrieked  his 
mother,  in  accents  of  supremest  relief  and  joy. 

'*  I  could  not  stay  away  longer,"  cried  Karlchen, 
returning  her  embrace  with  vigour,  "  I  felt  impelled 
to  come.  I  obtained  leave  after  many  prayers.  It  is 
for  a  few  hours  only.  I  return  to-night.  You 
forgive  me.^"  he  added,  turning  to  Anna  and 
bowing  over  her  hand. 

"  Yes,"  she  said,  smiling  ;  Karlchen  had  come  this 
time,  she  felt,  exactly  at  the  right  moment, 

"  I    wrote    this    very    morning "    began    his 

mother  in  her  excitement  ;  but  she  stopped  in  time, 
and  covered  her  confusion  by  once  again  folding  him 
in  her  arms. 

Karlchenwasso  much  delighted  by  this  unexpectedly 
cordial  reception  that  he  lost  his  head  a  little.  Anna 
stood  smiling  at  him  as  she  had  not  done  once  last 
time.  Yes,  there  were  the  dimples — oh,  sweet  vision  ! 
— they  were,  indeed,  glorious  dimples.  He  seized  her 
hand  a  second  time  and  kissed  it.  The  pretty  hand — • 
so  delicate  and  slender.  And  the  dress — Karlchen  had 
an  eye  for  dress — how  dainty  it  was  !  "  Your  kind 
welcome  quite  overcomes  me,"  he  said  enthusiastically  ; 
and  he  looked  so  gay,  and  so  intensely  satisfied  with 
himself  and  the  whole  world,  that  Anna  laughed 
again.  Besides,  the  uniform  was  really  surprisingly 
becoming  ;  his  civilian  clothes  on  his  first  visit  had 
been  melancholy  examples  of  what  a  military  tailor 
cannot  do. 

*'  Ah,  baroness,"  said  Karlchen,  catching  sight  of 
the  small,  silent  figure.  He  brought  his  heels  to- 
gether, bowed,  and  crossing  over  to  her  shook  hands. 
"  I  have  come  laden  with  greetings  for  you,"  he  said. 


XXVII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  353 

"Greetings?"  repeated  the  baroness,  surprised. 
Then  an  odd  look  of  fear  came  into  her  eyes. 

He  had  not  meant  to  do  it  then  ;  he  had  not  been 
certain  whether  he  would  do  it  this  time  at  all  ;  but 
he  was  feeling  so  exhilarated,  so  buoyant,  that  he 
could  not  resist.  "  I  was  at  the  Wintergarten  last 
night,"  he  said,  "  and  had  a  talk  with  your  sister. 
Baroness  Lolli.  She  dances  better  than  ever.  She 
sends  you  her  love,  and  says  she  is  coming  down  to 
see  you." 

The  baroness  made  a  queer  little  sound,  shut  her 
eyes,  spread  out  her  hands,  and  dropped  on  to  the 
carpet  as  though  she  had  been  shot. 


2    A 


CHAPTER   XXVIII 

"Is  Herr  von  Treumann  gone  ?  " 

It  was  late  the  same  afternoon,  and  Princess 
Ludwig  had  come  into  the  bedroom  where  the 
Stralsund  doctor  was  still  vainly  endeavouring  to 
bring  the  baroness  back  to  life,  to  ask  Anna  whether 
she  would  see  Axel  Lohm,  who  was  waiting  down- 
stairs and  hoped  to  be  allowed  to  speak  to  her. 
"  But  is  Herr  von  Treumann  gone  ? "  inquired 
Anna  ;  and  would  not  move  till  she  was  sure  of 
that. 

"  Yes,  and  his  mother  has  gone  with  him  to  the 
station." 

Anna  had  not  left  the  baroness's  side  since  the 
catastrophe.  She  could  not  see  the  unconscious  face 
on  the  pillow  for  tears.  Was  there  ever  such 
barbarous,  such  gratuitous  cruelty  as  young  Treu- 
mann's  ?  His  mother  had  been  in  once  or  twice  on 
tiptoe,  the  last  time  to  tell  Anna  that  he  was  leaving, 
and  would  she  not  come  down  so  that  he  might 
explain  how  sorry  he  was  for  having  unwittingly 
done  so  much  mischief  ?  But  Anna  had  merely 
shaken  her  head  and  turned  again  to  the  piteous 
little  figure  on  the  bed.  Never  again,  she  told 
herself,  would  she  see  or  speak  to  Karlchen. 

The  movement  with  which  she  turned  away  was 


CH.  XXVIII       THE  BENEFACTRESS  355 

expressive  ;  and  Frau  von  Truemann  went  out  and 
heaped  bitter  reproaches  on  Karlchen,  driving  with 
him  to  Stralsund  in  order  to  have  ample  time  to  heap 
^11  that  were  in  her  mind,  and  doing  it  the  more 
thoroughly  that  he  was  in  a  crushed  condition  and 
altogether  incapable  of  defending  himself.  For  what 
had  he  really  cared  about  the  baroness's  relationship 
to  Lolli  ?  He  had  thought  it  a  huge  joke,  and  had 
looked  forward  with  enjoyment  to  seeing  Anna 
promptly  order  her  out  of  the  house.  How  could 
he,  thick  of  skin  and  slow  of  brain,  have  foreseen 
such  a  crisis  ^  He  was  very  much  in  love  with 
Anna,  and  shivered  when  he  thought  of  the  look 
she  had  given  him  as  she  followed  the  people  who 
were  carrying  the  baroness  out  of  the  room.  Cer- 
tainly he  was  exceedingly  wretched,  and  his  mother 
could  not  reproach  him  more  bitterly  than  he 
reproached  himself.  While  she  was  vehemently 
pointing  out  the  obvious,  he  meditated  sadly  on  the 
length  of  the  journey  he  had  taken  for  worse  than 
nothing.  All  the  morning  he  had  been  roasted  in 
trains,  and  he  was  about  to  be  roasted  again  for  a 
dreary  succession  of  hours.  His  hot  uniform,  put 
on  solely  for  Anna's  bedazzlement,  added  enormously 
to  his  torments  ;  and  the  distance  between  Rislar 
and  Stralsund  was  great,  and  the  journey  propor- 
tionately expensive — much  too  expensive,  if  all  you 
got  for  it  was  one  intoxicating  glimpse  of  dimples, 
followed  by  a  flashing  look  of  wrath  that  made  you 
feel  cold  with  the  thermometer  at  ninety.  He  had 
not  felt  so  dejected  since  the  eighties,  he  reflected, 
in  which  dark  ages  he  had  been  forced  to  fight  a 
duel.  Karlchen  had  a  prejudice  against  duelling  ;  he 
thought  it  foolish.  But,  being  an  officer — he  was  at 
that  time  a  conspicuously  gay  lieutenant — whatever 


i,S6  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

he  might  think  about  it,  if  any  one  wanted  to  fight 
him  fight  he  must,  or  drop  into  the  awful  ranks  of 
Unknowables.  He  had  made  a  joke  of  a  personal 
nature,  and  the  other  man  turned  out  to  have  no 
sense  of  humour,  and  took  it  seriously,  and  expressed 
a  desire  for  Karlchen's  blood.  Driving  with  his 
justly  incensed  mother  through  the  dust  and  heat  to 
the  station,  he  remembered  the  dismal  night  he  had 
passed  before  the  duel,  and  thought  how  much  his 
dejection  then  had  resembled  in  its  profundity  his 
dejection  now  ;  for  he  had  been  afraid  he  was  going 
to  be  hurt,  and  whatever  people  may  say  about 
courage  nobody  really  likes  being  hurt.  Well, 
perhaps  after  all,  this  business  with  Anna  would 
turn  out  all  right,  just  as  that  business  had  turned 
out  all  right  ;  for  he  had  killed  his  man,  and,  instead 
of  wounds,  had  been  covered  with  glory.  Thus 
Karlchen  endeavoured  to  snatch  comfort  as  he  drove, 
but  yet  his  heart  was  very  heavy. 

"  I  hope,"  said  his  mother  bitingly  when  he  was 
in  the  train,  patiently  waiting  to  be  taken  beyond  the 
sound  of  her  voice, — "  I  do  hope  that  you  are 
ashamed  of  yourself.  It  is  a  bitter  feeling,  I  can 
tell  you,  the  feeling  that  one  is  the  mother  of  a 
fool." 

To  which  Karlchen,  still  dazed,  replied  by  un- 
hooking his  collar,  wiping  his  face,  and  appealing 
with  a  heartrending  plaintiveness  to  a  passing  beer- 
boy  to  give  him,  urn  GoUes  Willen^  beer. 

Axel  was  in  the  drawing-room,  where  the  remains 
of  Karlchen's  valedictory  coffee  and  cakes  were 
littered  on  a  table,  when  Anna  came  down.  "  I  am 
so  sorry  for  you,"  he  said.  "  Princess  Ludwig  has 
been  telling  me  what  has  happened." 

"  Don't  be  sorry  for  me.     Nothing  is  the  matter 


XXVIII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  357 

with  me.  Be  sorry  for  that  most  unfortunate  little 
soul  upstairs." 

Axel  kissed  Anna's  right  hand,  which  was,  she 
knew,  the  custom  ;  and  immediately  proceeded  to 
kiss  her  other  hand,  which  was  not  the  custom  at  all. 
She  was  looking  woebegone,  with  red  eyelids  and 
white  cheeks  ;  but  a  faint  colour  came  into  her  face 
at  this,  for  he  did  it  with  such  unmistakeable  devo- 
tion that  for  the  first  time  she  wondered  uneasily 
whether  their  pleasant  friendship  were  not  about  to 
come  to  an  end. 

"  Don't  be  too  kind,"  she  said,  drawing  her  hands 
away  and  trying  to  smile.  "  I — I  feel  so  stupid  to- 
day, and  want  to  cry  dreadfully." 

"  Well  then,  I  should  do  it,  and  get  it  over." 

"  I  did  do  it,  but  I  haven't  got  it  over." 

"  Well,  don't  think  of  it.      How  is  the  baroness  ?  " 

"  Just  the  same.  The  doctor  thinks  it  serious. 
And  she  has  no  constitution.  She  has  not  had 
enough  of  anything  for  years — not  enough  food,  or 
clothes,  or — or  anything." 

She  went  quickly  across  to  the  coffee  table  to 
hide  how  much  she  wanted  to  cry.  "  Have  some 
coffee,"  she  said  with  her  back  to  him,  moving  the 
cups  aimlessly  about. 

"  Don't  forget,"  said  Axel,  "  that  the  poor  lady's 
past  misery  is  over  now  and  done  with.  Think  what 
luck  has  come  in  her  way  at  last.  When  she  gets 
over  this,  here  she  is,  safe  with  you,  surrounded  by 
love  and  care  and  tenderness — blessings  not  given  to 
all  of  us." 

'*  But  she  doesn't  like  love  and  care  and  tender- 
ness. At  least,  if  it  comes  from  me.  She  dislikes 
me. 

Axel  could  not  exclaim  in  surprise,  for  he  was  not 


358  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

surprised.  The  baroness  had  appeared  to  him  to  be 
so  hopelessly  sour  ;  and  how,  he  thought,  shall  the 
hopelessly  sour  love  the  preternaturally  sweet  ^  He 
looked  therefore  at  Anna  arranging  the  cups  with 
restless,  nervous  fingers,  and  waited  for  more. 

"  Why  do  you  say  that  ?  "  she  asked,  still  with 
her  back  to  him. 

"  Say  what  .''  " 

"  That  when  she  gets  over  this  she  will  have  all 
those  nice  things  surrounding  her.  You  told  me 
when  first  she  came,  that  if  she  really  were  the  poor 
dancing  woman's  sister  I  ought  on  no  account  to 
keep  her  here.     Don't  you  remember  ?  " 

"  Quite  well.  But  am  I  not  right  in  supposing 
that  you  wi/l  keep  her  ?  You  see,  I  know  you 
better  now  than  I  did  then." 

"  If  she  liked  being  here — if  it  made  her  happy — 
I  would  keep  her  in  defiance  of  the  whole  world." 

"  But  as  it  is ?  " 

She  came  to  him  with  a  cup  of  cold  coiTee  in  her 
hands.     He  took  it,  and  stirred  it  mechanically. 

"  As  it  is,"  she  said,  "  she  is  very  ill,  and  has  to 
get  well  again  before  we  begin  to  decide  things. 
Perhaps,"  she  added,  looking  up  at  him  wistfully, 
"  this  illness  will  change  her  ^ " 

He  shook  his  head.  "  I  am  afraid  it  won't,"  he 
said.  "  For  a  little  while,  perhaps — for  a  few  weeks 
at  first  while  she  still  remembers  your  nursing,  and 
then — why,  the  old  self  over  again." 

He  put  the  untasted  coffee  down  on  the  nearest 
table.  "  There  is  no  getting  away,"  he  said,  coming 
back  to  her,  "  from  one's  old  self.  That  is  why  this 
work  you  have  undertaken  is  so  hopeless." 

"Hopeless.^"  she  exclaimed,  in  a  startled  voice. 
He  was  saying  aloud  what  she  had  more  than  once 


xxviii  THE  BENEFACTRESS  359 

almost  —  never  quite  —  whispered  in  her  heart  of 
hearts. 

"  You  ought  to  have  begun  with  the  baroness 
thirty  years  ago,  to  have  had  a  chance  of  success." 

"  Why,  she  was  five  years  old  then,  and  I  am  sure 
quite  cheerful.     And  I  wasn't  there  at  all." 

"  Five  ought  really  to  be  the  average  age  of  the 
Chosen.  What  is  the  use  of  picking  out  unhappy  per- 
sons well  on  in  life, and  thinking  you  are  going  to  make 
them  happy  ?  How  can  you  make  them  be  happy  .''  It 
it  had  been  possible  to  their  natures  they  would  have 
been  so  long  ago,  however  poor  they  were.  And  they 
would  not  have  been  so  poor  or  so  unhappy  if  they 
had  been  willing  to  work.  Work  is  such  an  admir- 
able tonic.  The  princess  works,  and  finds  life 
very  tolerable.  You  will  never  succeed  with  people 
like  Frau  von  Treumann  and  the  baroness.  They 
belong  to  a  class  of  persons  that  will  grumble  even  in 
heaven.  You  could  easily  make  those  who  are  happy 
already  still  happier,  for  it  is  in  them — the  gratitude 
and  appreciation  for  life  and  its  blessings  ;  but  those 
of  course  are  not  the  people  you  want  to  get  at. 
You  think  I  am  preaching  ?''  he  asked  abruptly. 

"  But  are  you  not  ^  " 

"  It  is  because  I  cannot  stand  by  and  watch  you 
bruising  yourself." 

*'Oh,"  said  Anna,  "  you  are  a  man,  and  can  fight 
your  way  well  enough  through  life.  You  are  quite 
comfortable  and  prosperous.  How  can  you  sympathise 
with  women  like  Else  ?  Because  she  is  not  young 
you  haven't  a  feeling  for  her — only  indifference. 
You  talk  of  my  bruising  myself — you  don't  mind  her 
bruises.  And  if  I  were  forty,  how  sure  I  am  that 
you  wouldn't  mind  mine." 

"  Yes,  I  would,"  said  Axel,  with  such  conviction 


36o  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

that  she  added  quickly,  "  Well — I  don't  want  to  talk 
about  bruises." 

"  I  hope  the  baroness  will  soon  get  over  the  cruel 
ones  that  singularly  brutal  young  man  has  inflicted. 
You  agree  with  me  that  he  is  a  singularly  brutal 
young  man  ? " 

"Absolutely." 

"  And  I  hope  that  when  she  is  well  again  you  will 
make  her  as  happy  as  she  is  capable  of  being." 

"  If  I  knew  how  !  " 

"  Why,  by  letting  her  go  away,  and  giving  her 
enough  to  live  on  decently  by  herself.  It  would  be 
quite  the  best  course  to  take,  both  for  you  and  for  her." 

Anna  looked  down.  "  I  have  been  thinking  the 
same  thing,"  she  said  in  a  low  voice  ;  she  felt  as 
though  she  were  hauling  down  her  flag. 

"  Perhaps  you  will  let  me  help." 

"Help.?" 

"  Let  me  contribute.  Why  may  I  not  be 
charitable  too.?  If  we  join  together  it  will  be  to  her 
advantage.  She  need  not  know.  And  you  are  not 
a  millionaire." 

"  Nor  are  you,"  said  Anna,  smiling  up  at  him. 

"  We  unfortunates  who  live  by  our  potatoes  are 
never  millionaires.      But  still  we  can  be  charitable." 

"  But  why  should  jy'oz/  help  the  baroness  ?  I  found 
her  out,  and  brought  her  here,  and  I  am  the  only 
person  responsible  for  her." 

"It  will  be  much  more  costly  than  just  having  her 
here." 

"  I  don't  mind,  if  only  she  is  happy.  And  I  will 
not  have  you  pay  the  cost  of  my  experiments  in 
philanthropy." 

"Is  Frau  von  Treumann  happy?"  he  asked 
abruptly. 


xxviii  THE  BENEFACTRESS  361 

"  No,"  said  Anna,  with  a  faint  smile. 

*'  Is  Frjiulein  Kuhrauber  happy  r  " 

"No." 

"Tell  me  one  thing  more,"  he  said;  "are  you 
happy  .''  " 

Anna  blushed.  "That  is  a  queer  question,"  she 
said.     "  Why  should  1  not  be  happy  }  " 

"  But  are  you  ?  " 

She  looked  at  him,  hesitating.  Then  she  said,  in 
a  very  small  voice,  "  No." 

Axel  took,  two  or  three  turns  up  and  down  the 
room.  "  I  knew  it,"  he  said  ;  and  added  something 
in  German  under  his  breath  about  Weiber.  "  After 
this,  you  will  not,  I  suppose,  receive  young  Treumann 
again  .? "  he  asked,  coming  to  a  halt  in  front  of  her. 

"  Never  again." 

"You  have  a  difficult  time  before  you,  then,  with 
his  mother." 

Anna  blushed.  "  I  am  afraid  I  have  "  she 
admitted. 

"  You  have  a  very  difficult  few  weeks  before  you," 
he  said.  "  The  baroness  probably  dangerously  ill, 
and  Frau  von  Treumann  very  angry  with  you.  I 
know  Princess  Ludwig  does  all  she  can,  but  still  you 
are  alone — against  odds." 

The  odds,  too,  were  greater  than  she  knew.  All 
day  he  had  been  officially  engaged  in  making  inquiries 
into  the  origin  of  the  fire  the  night  before,  and  every 
circumstance  pointed  to  Klutz  as  the  culprit.  He 
had  sent  for  Klutz,  and  Klutz,  they  said,  had  gone 
home.  Then  he  sent  a  telegram  after  him,  and  his 
father  replied  that  he  was  neither  expecting  his  son 
nor  was  he  ill.  Klutz,  then,  had  disappeared  in 
order  to  avoid  the  consequences  of  what  he  had 
done  ;   but  it  was  only  a  question  of  days  before  the 


362  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

police  brought  him  back  again,  and  then  he  would 
tell  the  whole  absurd  story,  and  Pomerania  would 
chuckle  at  Anna's  expense.  The  thought  of  this 
chuckling  made  Axel  cold  with  rage. 

He  stood  looking  out  of  the  window  at  the 
parched  garden,  the  drooping  lilac  bushes,  the  hazy 
island  across  the  water.  The  wind  had  dropped, 
and  a  grey  film  had  drawn  across  the  sky.  At  the 
bottom  of  the  garden,  under  a  chestnut  tree,  Miss 
Leech  was  sewing,  while  Letty  read  aloud  to  her. 
The  monotonous  drone  of  Letty's  reading,  inter- 
rupted by  her  loud  complaints  each  time  a  mosquito 
stung  her,  reached  Axel's  ears  as  he  stood  there  in 
silence.  A  grim  struggle  was  going  on  within  him. 
He  loved  Anna  with  a  passion  that  would  no  longer 
be  hidden  ;  and  he  knew  that  he  must  somehow  hide 
it.  He  was  so  certain  that  she  did  not  care  about 
him.  He  was  so  certain  that  she  would  never  dream 
of  marrying  him.  And  yet  if  ever  a  woman  needed 
the  protection  of  an  all-enfolding  love  it  was  Anna 
at  that  moment.  "  That  child  down  there  has  made 
a  pretty  fair  amount  of  mischief  for  a  person  of  her 
age,"  he  burst  out  with  a  vehemence  that  startled  Anna. 

*' What  child  .'^ "  she  said,  coming  up  behind  him 
and  looking  over  his  shoulder. 

He  turned  round  quickly.  The  feeling  that  she 
was  so  close  to  him  tore  away  the  last  shred  of  his 
self-control.  "  You  know  that  I  love  you,"  he  said, 
his  voice  shaking  with  passion. 

Her  face  in  an  instant  was  colourless.  She  stood 
quite  still,  almost  touching  him,  as  though  she  did 
not  dare  move.  Her  eyes  were  fixed  on  his  with 
a  frightened,  fascinated  look. 

"  You  know  it.  You  have  known  it  a  long  time. 
Now  what  are  you  going  to  say  to  me  ?  " 


XXVIII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  363 

She  looked  at  him  without  speaking  or  moving. 

"  Anna,  what  are  you  going  to  say  to  me  ?  "  he 
cried  ;  and  he  caught  up  her  hands  and  kissed  them 
one  after  the  other,  hardly  knowing  what  he  did, 
beside  himself  with  love  of  her. 

She  watched  him  helplessly.  She  felt  faint  and 
sick.  She  had  had  a  miserable  day,  and  was  com- 
pletely overwhelmed  by  this  last  misfortune.  Her 
good  friend  Axel  was  gone — gone  for  ever.  The 
pleasant  friendship  was  done.  In  place  of  the  friend 
she  so  much  needed,  of  the  friendship  she  had  found 
so  comforting,  there  was — this. 

*'  Won't  you — won't  you  let  my  hands  go  ? "  she 
said  faintly.  She  did  not  know  him  again.  Was  it 
possible  that  this  agony  of  love  was  for  her  ?  She 
knev/  herself  so  well — she  knew  so  well  what  it  was 
for  which  he  was  evidently  going  to  break  his  heart. 
How  wonderful,  how  pitiful  beyond  expression,  that 
a  good  man  like  Axel  should  suffer  anything  because 
of  her.  And  even  in  the  midst  of  her  fright  and 
misery  the  thought  would  not  be  put  from  her  that 
if  she  had  happened  to  look  like  the  baroness  or 
Fraulein  Kuhrauber,  while  inwardly  remaining  exactly 
as  she  was,  he  would  not  have  broken  his  heart  for 

her,    *'  Oh,  let  me  go "  she  whispered  ;  and  turned 

her  head  aside,  and  shut  her  eyes,  unable  to  look  any 
longer  at  the  love  and  despair  in  his. 

"  But  what  are  you  going  to  say  to  me  ? " 

"  Oh,  you  know — you  know " 

"  But  you  are  so  sorry  always  for  people  who 
suffer " 

"  Oh,  stop — oh,  stop  !  " 

"  No,  I  won't  stop  ;  here  have  I  been  condemned 
to  look  on  at  you  lavishing  love  on  people  who  don't 
want  it,  don't  like  it,  are  wearied  by  it — v.'ho  don't 


364  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

know  how  precious  it  is,  how  priceless  it  is,  and  how 
I  am  hungering  and  thirsting — oh,  starving,  starving, 

for  one  drop  of  it "     His  voice  shook,  and  he 

fell  once  more  to  covering  her  hands  with  kisses  that 
seemed  to  scorch  her  soul. 

This  was  very  dreadful.  Her  soul  had  never 
been  scorched  before.  Something  must  be  done  to 
stop  him.  She  could  not  stand  there  with  her  eyes 
shut  and  her  hands  being  kissed  for  ever.  "  Please 
let  me  go,"  she  entreated  faintly  ;  and  in  her 
helplessness  began  to  cry. 

He  instantly  released  her,  and  she  stood  before 
him  crying.  What  a  horrible  thing  it  was  to  lose 
her  friend,  to  be  forced  to  hurt  him.  "  I  never 
dreamt  that  you — -that  you "  she  v/ept, 

"  What,  that  I  loved  you.? "  he  asked  incredulously, 
but  more  gently,  subdued  by  her  deep  distress.  His 
face  grew  very  hopeless.  She  was  crying  because 
she  was  sorry  for  him. 

*'  I  don't  know — I  think  I  did  dream  that — lately 
— once  or  twice — but  I  never  dreamt  that  it  was  so 
bad — that  you  were  such  a — such  a — such  a  volcano. 
Oh,  Axel,  why  are  you  a  volcano .?  "  she  cried,  looking 
up  at  him,  the  tears  rolling  down  her  cheeks.  "  Why 
have  you  spoilt  everything  "^  It  was  so  nice  before. 
We  were  such  friends.  And  now — how  can  I  be 
friends  with  a  volcano  } " 

"  Anna,  if  you  make  fun  of  me " 

"  Oh  no,  no — as  though  I  would — as  though  I 
could  do  anything  so  unutterable.  But  don't  let  us 
be  tragic.  Oh,  don't  let  us  be  tragic.  You  know 
my  plans  —  you  know  my  plans  inside  out,  from 
beginning  to  end  —  how  can  I,  how  ca7t  I  marry 
anybody  ^  " 

"Good  God,  those  women  —  those  women  who 


XXVIII  THE  BENEFACTRESS  365 

are  not  happv,  who  have  spoilt  your  happiness,  they 
are  to  spoil  mine  now — ours,  Anna?"  He  seized 
her  arm  as  though  he  would  wake  her  at  all  costs 
from  a  fatal  sleep.  "  Do  you  mean  to  say  that  if 
it  were  not  for  those  women  you  would  be  my 
wife  ?  " 

"  Oh,  if  only  you  wouldn't  be  tragic " 

"  Do  you  mean  to  say  that  is  the  reason  ?  " 

"  Oh,  isn't  it  sufficient " 

"  No.  If  you  cared  for  me  it  would  be  no  reason 
at  all." 

She  cried  bitterly.  "  But  I  don't,"  she  sobbed. 
"Not  like  that — not  in  that  way.  It  is  atrocious 
of  me  not  to — I  know  how  good  you  are,  how  kind, 
how — how  everything.  And  still  I  don't.  I  don't 
know  why  I  don't,  but  I  don't.  Oh,  Axel,  I  am  so 
sorry — don't  look  so  wretched — I  can't  bear  it." 

"  But  what  can  it  matter  to  you  how  I  look  if 
you  don't  care  about  me  ? " 

"  Oh,  oh,"  sobbed  Anna,  wringing  her  hands. 

He  caught  hold  of  her  wrist.  "  See  here,  Anna. 
Look  at  me." 

But  she  would  not  look  at  him. 

*'  Look  at  me.  I  don't  believe  you  know  your 
own  mind.  I  want  to  see  into  your  eyes.  They 
were  always  honest — look  at  me." 

But  she  would  not  look  at  him. 

"Surely  you  will  do  that — only  that — for  me." 

"  There  isn't  anything  to  see,"  she  wept  ;  "  there 
really  isn't.     It  is  dreadful  of  me,  but  I  can't  help  it." 

"  Well,  but  look  at  me." 

"  Oh,  Axel,  what  is  the  use  of  looking  at  you  ? " 
she  cried  in  ciespair  ;  and  pulled  her  handkerchief 
away  and  did  it. 

He  searched  her  face  for  a  moment  in  silence,  as 


366  THE  BENEFACTRESS       ch.  xxviii 

though  he  thought  that  if  only  he  could  read  her 
soul  he  might  understand  it  better  than  she  did 
herself.  Those  dear  eyes — they  were  full  of  pity, 
full  of  distress  ;  but  search  as  he  might  he  could 
find  nothing  else. 

He  turned  away  without  a  word. 

"  Don't,  don't  be  tragic,"  she  begged,  anxiously 
following  him  a  few  steps.  "  If  only  you  are  not 
tragic  we  shall  still  be  able  to  be  friends " 

But  he  did  not  look  round. 

A  servant  with  a  tray  was  outside  coming  in 
to  take  the  coffee  away.  "  Oh,"  exclaimed  Anna, 
seeing  that  it  was  impossible  to  hide  her  tear-stained 
face  from  the  girl's  calm  scrutiny, — "  Oh  Johanna,  the 

poor  baroness — she  is  so  ill — it  is  so  dreadful " 

And  she  dropped  into  a  chair  and  hid  herself  in  the 
cushions,  weeping  hysterically  with  an  abandonment 
of  woe  that  betokened  a  quite  extraordinary  affection 
for  the  baroness. 

"  Go//,  die  arme  Baronesse^'"  sympathised  Johanna 
perfunctorily.  To  herself  she  remarked,  "  This  very 
moment  has  the  miss  refused  to  marry  gn'ddiger 
HerrT 


CHAPTER   XXIX 

What  Anna  most  longed  for  in  the  days  that 
followed  was  a  mother.  "  If  I  had  a  mother,"  she 
thought,  not  once,  but  again  and  again,  and  her  eyes 
had  a  wistful,  starved  look  when  she  thought  it,—"  if 
I  only  had  a  mother,  a  sweet  mother  all  to  myself,  of 
my  very  own,  I'd  put  my  head  on  her  dear  shoulder 
and  cry  myself  happy  again.  First  I'd  tell  her  every- 
thing, and  she  wouldn't  mind  however  silly  it  was, 
and  she  wouldn't  be  tired  however  long  it  was,  and 
she'd  say  '  Little  darhng  child,  you  are  only  a  baby 
after  all,'  and  would  scold  me  a  little,  and  kiss  me  a 
great  deal,  and  then  I'd  listen  so  comfortably,  all  the 
time  with  my  face  against  her  nice  soft  dress,  and  I 
would  feel  so  safe  and  sure  and  wrapped  round  while 
she  told  me  what  to  do  next.  It  is  lonely  and  cold 
and  difficult  without  a  mother." 

The  house  was  in  confusion.  The  baroness  had 
come  out  of  her  unconsciousness  to  delirium,  and  the 
doctors,  knowing  that  she  was  not  related  to  any  one 
there,  talked  openly  of  death.  There  were  two 
doctors,  now,  and  two  nurses  ;  and  Anna  insisted  on 
nursing  too,  wearing  herself  out  with  all  the  more 
passion  because  she  felt  that  it  was  of  so  little 
importance  really  to  any  one  whether  the  baroness 
lived  or  died. 


368  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

They  were  all  strangers,  the  people  watching  this 
frail  fighter  for  life,  and  they  watched  with  the  in- 
difference natural  to  strangers.  Here  was  a  middle- 
aged  person  who  would  probably  die  ;  if  she  died  no 
one  lost  anything,  and  if  she  lived  it  did  not  matter 
either.  The  doctors  and  nurses,  accustomed  to  these 
things,  could  not  be  expected  to  be  interested  in  so 
profoundly  uninteresting  a  case  ;  PVau  von  Treu- 
mann  observed  once  at  least  every  day  that  it  was 
schrecklich^  and  went  on  with  her  embroidery  ; 
Fraulein  Kuhriiuber  cried  a  little  when,  on  her  way 
to  her  bedroom,  she  heard  the  baroness  raving, 
but  she  cried  easily,  and  the  raving  frightened  her  ; 
the  princess  felt  that  death  in  this  case  would  be  a 
blessing ;  and  Letty  and  Miss  Leech  avoided  the 
house,  and  spent  the  burning  days  rambling  in 
woods  that  teemed  with  prodigal,  joyous  life. 

As  for  Anna,  to  see  her  in  the  sickroom  was  to 
suppose  her  the  nearest  and  tenderest  relative  of  the 
baroness  ;  and  yet  the  passion  that  possessed  her  was 
not  love,  but  only  an  endless,  unfathomable  pity. 
"  If  she  gets  well,  she  shall  never  be  unhappy  again," 
vowed  Anna  in  those  days  when  she  thought  she 
could  hear  Death's  footsteps  on  the  stairs.  "  Here 
or  somewhere  else — anywhere  she  likes — she  shall 
live  and  be  happy.  She  will  see  that  her  poor  sister 
has  made  no  difference,  except  that  there  will  be  no 
shadow  between  us  now." 

But  what  is  the  use  of  vowing  ?  When  June  was 
in  its  second  week  the  baroness  slowly  and  hesitatingly 
turned  the  corner  of  her  illness  ;  and  immediately  the 
corner  was  turned  and  the  exhaustion  of  turning  it 
got  over,  she  became  fractious.  "  You  will  have  a 
difficult  time,"  Axel  had  said  on  the  day  he  spoilt 
their  friendship  ;  and  it  was  true.     The  difficult  time 


XXIX  THE  BENEFACTRESS  369 

began  after  that  corner  was  turned,  and  the  farther 
the  baroness  drew  away  from  it,  the  nearer  she  got 
to  complete  convalescence,  the  more  difficult  did  life 
for  Anna  become.  For  it  resumed  the  old  course, 
and  they  all  resumed  their  old  selves,  the  same  old 
selves,  even  to  the  shadow  of  an  unmentioned  Lolli 
between  them,  that  Axel  had  said  they  would  by  no 
means  get  away  from  ;  but  with  this  difference,  that 
the  peculiarities  of  both  Frau  von  Treumann  and  the 
baroness  were  more  pronounced  than  before,  and  that 
not  one  of  the  trio  would  speak  to  either  of  the 
other  two. 

Frau  von  Treumann  was  still  firmly  fixed  in  the 
house,  without  the  least  intention  apparently  of  leav- 
ing it,  and  she  spent  her  time  lying  in  wait  for  Anna, 
watching  for  an  opportunity  of  beginning  again  about 
Karlchen.  Anna  had  avoided  the  inevitable  day 
when  she  would  be  caught,  but  it  came  at  last,  and 
she  was  caught  in  the  garden,  whither  she  had  retired 
to  consider  how  best  to  approach  the  baroness, 
hitherto  quite  unapproachable,  on  the  burning  ques- 
tion of  Lolli. 

Frau  von  Treumann  appeared  suddenly,  coming 
softly  across  the  grass,  so  that  there  was  no  time  to 
run  away.  "  Anna,"  she  called  out  reproachfully, 
seeing  Anna  make  a  movement  as  though  she 
wanted  to  run,  which  was  exactly  what  she  did  want 
to  do, — "  Anna,  have  I  the  plague  ?  " 

"  I  hope  not,"  said  Anna, 

"  You  treat  me  as  if  I  had  it." 

Anna  said  nothing.  "  Why  does  she  stay  here .? 
How  can  she  stay  here,  after  what  has  happened  ?  " 
she  had  wondered  often.  Perhaps  she  had  come  now 
to  announce  her  departure.  She  prepared  herself 
therefore  to  listen  with  a  wiUina:  ear. 

2    B 


370  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

She  was  sitting  in  the  shade  of  a  copper  beech 
facing  the  oily  sea  and  the  coast  of  Riigen  quivering 
opposite  in  the  heat-haze.  She  was  not  doing  any- 
thing ;  she  never  did  seem  to  do  anything,  as  these 
ladies  of  the  busy  fingers  often  noticed. 

"  Blue  and  white,"  said  Anna,  looking  up  at  the 
gulls  and  the  sky  to  give  Frau  von  Treumann  time, 
— "  the  Pomeranian  colours.  I  see  now  where  they 
come  from." 

But  Frau  von  Treumann  had  not  come  out  to  talk 
about  the  Pomeranian  colours.  "  My  Karlchen  has 
been  ill,"  she  said,  her  eyes  on  Anna's  face. 

Anna  watched  the  gulls  overhead  in  the  deep  blue. 
"So  has  Else,"  she  remarked. 

"  Dear  me,"  thought  Frau  von  Treumann,  "  what 
rancour." 

She  laid  her  hand  on  Anna's  knee,  and  it  was 
taken  no  notice  of.  "You  cannot  forgive  him.''" 
she  said  gently.  "  You  cannot  pardon  a  momentary 
indiscretion  ^ " 

"  I  have  nothing  to  forgive,"  said  Anna,  watching 
the  gulls  ;  one  dropped  down  suddenly,  and  rose 
again  with  a  fish  in  its  beak,  the  sun  for  an  instant 
catching  the  silver  of  the  scales.  "  It  is  no  affair  of 
mine.      It  is  for  Else  to  forgive  him." 

Frau  von  Treumann  began  to  weep  ;  this  way 
of  looking  at  it  was  so  hopelessly  unreasonable.  She 
pulled  out  her  handkerchief.  "  What  a  heap  she 
must  use,"  thought  Anna  ;  never  had  she  met  people 
who  cried  so  much  and  so  easily  as  the  Chosen  ;  she 
was  quite  used  now  to  red  eyes  ;  one  or  other  of 
her  sisters  had  them  almost  daily,  for  the  farther 
their  old  bodily  discomforts  and  real  anxieties  lay 
behind  them  the  more  tender  and  easily  lacerated  did 
their  feelings  become. 


XXIX  THE  BENEFACTRESS  371 

"  He  could  not  bear  to  see  you  being  imposed 
upon,"  said  Frau  von  Treumann.  "  As  soon  as  he 
knew  about  this  terrible  sister  he  felt  he  must 
hasten  down  to  save  you.  '  Mother,'  he  said  to  me 
when  first  he  suspected  it,  '  if  it  is  true,  she  must  not 
be  contaminated.'  " 

"  Who  mustn't  ?  " 

'*  Oh,  Anna,  you  know  he  thinks  only  of  you  !  " 

"Well,  you  see,"  said  Anna,  "  I  don't  mind  being 
contaminated." 

"  Oh,  dear  child,  a  young  pretty  girl  ought  to 
mind  very  much." 

"  Well,  I  don't.  But  what  about  yourself.^  Are 
you  not  afraid  of — of  contamination .?  "  She  was 
frightened  by  her  own  daring  when  she  had  said  it, 
and  would  not  have  looked  at  Frau  von  Treumann 
for  worlds. 

*'  No,  dear  child,"  replied  that  lady  in  tones  of 
tearful  sweetness,  "  I  am  too  old  to  suffer  in  any 
way  from  associating  with  queer  people." 

*'  But    I   thought   a    Treumann "  murmured 

Anna,  more  and  more  frightened  at  herself,  but 
impelled  to  go  on. 

"  Dear  Anna,  a  Treumann  has  never  yet  flinched 
before  duty." 

Anna  was  silenced.  After  that  she  could  only 
continue  to  watch  the  gulls. 

"  You  are  going  to  keep  the  baroness.?  " 

"  If  she  cares  to  stay — yes." 

"  I  thought  you  would.  It  is  for  you  to  decide 
who  you  will  have  in  your  house.  But  what  would 
you  do  if  this — this  Lolli  came  down  to  see  her 
sister  ?  " 

"I  really  cannot  tell." 

"  Well,  be  sure  of  one   thing,"    burst  out  Frau 


372  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

von  Treumann  enthusiastically,  "  I  will  not  forsake 
you,  dear  Anna.  Your  position  now  is  exceedingly 
delicate,  and  I  will  not  forsake  you." 

So  she  was  not  going.  Anna  got  up  with  a  faint 
sigh.  "  It  is  frightfully  hot  here,"  she  said  ;  "  I  think 
I  will  go  to  Else." 

"Ah — and  I  wanted  to  tell  you  about  my  poor 
Karlchen — and  you  avoid  me — you  do  not  want  to 
hear.  If  I  am  in  the  house,  the  house  is  too  hot. 
If  I  come  into  the  garden,  the  garden  is  too  hot. 
You  no  longer  like  being  with  me." 

Anna  did  not  contradict  her.  She  was  wondering 
painfully  what  she  ought  to  do.  Ought  she  meekly 
to  allow  Frau  von  Treumann  to  stay  on  at  Klein- 
walde,  to  the  exclusion,  perhaps,  of  some  one  really 
deserving  }  Or  ought  she  to  brace  herself  to  the 
terrible  task  of  asking  her  to  go  ?  She  thought,  "  I 
will  ask  Axel  " — and  then  remembered  that  there 
was  no  Axel  to  ask.  He  never  came  near  her. 
He  had  dropped  out  of  her  life  as  completely  as 
though  he  had  left  Lohm.  Since  that  unhappy  day, 
she  had  neither  seen  him  nor  heard  of  him.  Many 
times  did  she  say  to  herself,  "  I  will  ask  Axel,"  and 
always  the  remembrance  that  she  could  not  came 
with  a  shock  of  loneliness  ;  and  then  she  would 
drop  into  the  train  of  thought  that  ended  with  "  If 
I  had  a  mother,"  and  her  eyes  growing  wistful. 

"  Perhaps  it  is  the  hot  weather,"  she  said  sud- 
denly, an  evening  or  two  later,  after  a  long  silence, 
to  the  princess.  They  had  been  speaking  of  servants 
before  that. 

"  You  think  it  is  the  hot  weather  that  makes 
Johanna  break  the  cups  ?  " 

"  That  makes  me  think  so  much  of  mothers." 

The  princess   turned  her  head   quickly,   and   ex- 


xxrx  THE  BENEFACTRESS  373 

amined  Anna's  face.  It  was  Sunday  evening,  and 
the  others  were  at  church.  The  baroness,  whose 
recovery  was  slow,  was  up  hi  her  room. 

*'  What  mothers  ?  "  naturally  inquired  the  princess. 

"  I  think  this  everlasting  heat  is  dreadful,"  said 
Anna  plaintively.  "  I  have  no  backbone  left.  I 
am  all  limp,  and  soft,  and  silly.  In  cold  weather 
I  believe  I  wouldn't  want  a  mother  half  so  badly." 

"So  you  want  a  mother.''"  said  the  princess, 
taking  Anna's  hand  in  hers  and  patting  it  kindly. 
She  thought  she  knew  why.  Every  one  in  the 
house  saw  that  something  must  have  been  said  to 
Axel  Lohm  to  make  him  keep  away  so  long. 
Perhaps  Anna  was  repenting,  and  wanted  a  mother's 
help  to  set  things  right  again. 

"  I  always  thought  it  would  be  so  glorious  to  be 
independent,"  said  Anna,  "and  now  somehow  it  isn't. 
It  is  tiring.  I  want  some  one  to  tell  me  what  I 
ought  to  do,  and  to  see  that  I  do  it.  Besides  petting 
me.     I  long  and  long  sometimes  to  be  petted." 

The  princess  looked  wise.  "  My  dear,"  she  said, 
shaking  her  head,  "  it  is  not  a  mother  that  you  want. 
Do  you  know  the  couplet  : — 

Man  bedarf  der  Leitung 
Und  der  m'dnnlichen  Begleitung ? 

A  truly  excellent  couplet." 

Anna  smiled.  "  That  is  the  German  idea  of 
female  bliss — always  to  be  led  round  by  the  nose  by 
some  husband." 

"  Not  some  husband,  my  dear — one's  own  husband. 
You  may  call  it  leading  by  the  nose  if  you  like.  I 
can  only  say  that  I  enjoyed  being  led  by  mine,  and 
have  missed  it  grievously  ever  since." 

"But  you  had  found  the  right  maru" 


374  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

"  It  is  not  very  difficult  to  find  the  right  man." 

"  Yes  it  is — very  difficult  indeed." 

"  I  think  not,"  said  the  princess.  "  He  is  never 
far  off.  Sometimes,  even,  he  is  next  door."  And 
she  gazed  over  Anna's  head  at  the  ceiling  with 
elaborate  unconsciousness. 

"  And  besides,"  said  Anna,  '*  why  does  a  woman 
everlastingly  want  to  be  led  and  propped  ?  Why 
can't  she  go  about  the  business  of  life  on  her 
own  feet .''  "Why  must  she  always  lean  on  some 
one  : 

"  You  said  just  now  it  is  because  it  is  hot." 

"  The  fact  is,"  said  Anna,  "  that  I  am  not  clever 
enough  to  see  my  way  through  puzzles.  And  that 
depresses  me." 

"  I  well  know  that  you  must  be  puzzled." 

"  Yes,  it  is  puzzling,  isn't  it  ?  I  can  talk  to  you 
about  it,  for  of  course  you  see  it  all.  It  seems  so 
absurd  that  the  only  result  of  my  trying  to  make 
people  happy  is  to  make  every  one,  including  my- 
self, wretched.  That  is  waste,  isn't  it.  Waste,  I  mean, 
of  happiness.      For  I,  at  least,  was  happy  before." 

"  And,  my  dear,  you  will  be  happy  again." 

Anna  knit  her  brows  in  painful  thought.  "  If 
by  being  wretched  I  had  managed  to  make  the  others 
happy  it  wouldn't  have  been  so  bad.  At  least  it 
wouldn't  have  been  so  completely  silly.  The  only 
thing  I  can  think  of  is  that  I  must  have  hit  upon 
the  wrong  people." 

"  /  Gott  bewahre  !  "  cried  the  princess  with  energy. 
"  They  are  all  alike.  Send  these  away — you  get 
them  back  in  a  different  shape.  Faces  and  names 
would  be  different,  never  the  women.  They  would 
all  be  Treumanns  and  Elmreichs,  and  not  a  single 
one  worth  anything  in  the  whole  heap." 


XXIX  THE  BENEFACTRESS  375 

"  Well,  I  shall  not  desert  them — Else  and  Emilie, 
I  mean.  They  need  help,  both  of  them.  And  after 
all,  it  is  simple  selfishness  for  ever  wanting  to  be 
happy  one's  self.  I  have  begun  to  see  that  the  chief 
thing  in  life  is  not  to  be  as  happy  as  one  can,  but 
to  be  very  brave." 

The  princess  sighed.      "  Poor  Axel,"  she  said. 

Anna  started,  and  blushed  violently.  "  Pray  what 
has  my  being  brave  to  do  with  Herr  von  Lohm  .'*  " 
she  inquired  severely. 

"Why,  you  are  going  to  be  brave  at  his  expense, 
poor  man.  You  must  not  expect  anything  from  me, 
my  dear,  but  common  sense.  You  give  up  all  hope 
of  being  happy  because  you  think  it  your  duty  to  go 
on  sacrificing  him  and  yourself  to  a  set  of  thankless, 
worthless  women,  and  you  call  it  being  brave.  I 
call  it  being  unnatural  and  silly." 

"  It  has  never  been  a  question  of  Herr  von 
Lohm,"  said  Anna  coldly,  indeed  freezingly.  "  What 
claims  has  he  on  me  ?  My  plans  were  all  made 
before  I  knew  that  he  existed." 

"  Oh,  my  dear,  your  plans  are  very  irritating 
things.  The  only  plan  a  sensible  young  woman 
ought  to  make  is  to  get  as  good  a  husband  as  possible 
as  quickly  as  she  can." 

"  Why,"  said  Anna,  rising  in  her  indignation, 
and  preparing  to  leave  a  princess  suddenly  become 
objectionable, — "  why,  you  are  as  bad  as  Susie  I  " 

"Susie.''"  said  the  princess,  who  had  not  heard 
of  her  by  that  name.  "  Was  Susie  also  one  who  told 
you  the  truth  .^  " 

But  Anna  walked  out  of  the  room  without  answer- 
ing, in  a  very  dignified  manner  ;  went  into  the 
loneliest  part  of  the  garden  ;  sat  down  behind  some 
bushes  ;   and  cried. 


376  THE  BENEFACTRESS    chap,  xxix 

She  looked  back  on  those  childish  tears  afterwards, 
and  on  all  that  had  gone  before,  as  the  last  part  of 
a  long  sleep, — a  sleep  disturbed  by  troubling  and 
foolish  dreams,  but  still  only  a  sleep  and  only 
dreams.  She  woke  up  the  very  next  day,  and  re- 
mained wide  awake  after  that  for  the  rest  of  her 
life. 


CHAPTER   XXX 

Anna  drove  into  Stralsund  the  next  morning  to  her 
banker,  accompanied  by  Miss  Leech.  When  they 
passed  Axel's  house  she  saw  that  his  gate-posts  were 
festooned  with  wreaths,  and  that  garlands  of  flowers 
were  strung  across  the  gateway,  swaying  to  and  fro 
softly  in  the  light  breeze.  "  Why,  how  festive  it 
looks,"  she  exclaimed,  wondering. 

"  Yesterday  was  Herr  von  Lohm's  birthday,"  said 
Miss  Leech.     "  I  heard  Princess  Ludwig  say  so." 

"Oh,"  said  Anna.  Her  tone  was  piqued.  She 
turned  her  head  away,  and  looked  at  the  hay-fields  on 
the  opposite  side  of  the  road.  Axel  must  have 
birthdays,  of  course,  and  why  should  he  not  put 
things  round  his  gate-posts  if  he  wanted  to  ?  Yet 
she  would  not  look  again,  and  was  silent  the  rest  of 
the  way  ;  nor  was  it  of  any  use  for  Miss  Leech  to 
attempt  to  while  away  the  long  drive  with  pleasant 
conversation.  Anna  would  not  talk  ;  she  said  it  was 
too  hot  to  talk.  What  she  was  thinking  was  that 
men  were  exceedingly  horrid,  all  of  them,  and  that 
life  was  a  snare. 

Far  from  being  festive,  however.  Axel's  latest 
birthday  was  quite  the  most  solitary  he  had  yet 
spent.  The  cheerful  garlands  had  been  put  up  by 
an  officious  gardener  on  his  own  initiative.      No  one. 


378  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

except  Axel's  own  dependants,  had  passed  beneath 
them  to  wish  him  Juck.  Trudi  had  telegraphed  her 
blessings,  administering  them  thus  in  their  easiest 
form.  His  Stralsund  friends  had  apparently  for- 
gotten him  ;  in  other  years  they  had  been  glad  of 
the  excuse  the  birthday  gave  for  driving  out  into  the 
country  in  June,  but  this  year  the  astonished  Mamsell 
saw  her  birthday  cake  remain  untouched,  and  her 
baked  meats  waiting  vainly  for  somebody  to  come 
and  eat  them. 

Axel  neither  noticed  nor  cared.  The  haymaking 
season  had  just  begun,  and  besides  his  own  affairs 
he  was  preoccupied  by  Anna's.  If  she  had  not  been 
shut  up  so  long  in  the  baroness's  sickroom  she 
would  have  met  him  often  enough.  She  thought  he 
never  intended  to  come  near  her  again,  and  all  the 
time,  whenever  he  could  spare  a  moment  and  often 
when  he  could  not,  he  was  on  her  property,  watching 
Dellwig's  farming  operations.  She  should  not  suffer, 
he  told  himself,  because  he  loved  her  ;  she  should 
not  be  punished  because  she  was  not  able  to  love 
him.  He  would  go  on  doing  what  he  could  for  her, 
and  was  certainly,  at  his  age,  not  going  to  sulk  and 
leave  her  to  face  her  difficulties  alone. 

The  first  time  he  met  Dellwig  on  these  incursions 
into  Anna's  domain,  he  expected  to  be  received  with  a 
scowl  ;  but  Dellwig  did  not  scowl  at  all ;  was  on  the 
contrary  quite  affable,  even  volunteering  information 
about  the  work  he  had  in  hand.  Nor  had  he  been 
after  all  offensively  zealous  in  searching  for  the 
person  who  had  set  the  stables  on  fire  ;  and  luckily 
the  Stralsund  police  had  not  been  very  zealous  either. 
Kultz  was  looked  for  for  a  little  while  after  Axel 
had  denounced  him  as  the  probable  culprit,  but  the 
matter  had  been  dropped,  apparently,  and  for  the  last 


XXX  THE  BENEFACTRESS  379 

ten  days  nothing  more  had  been  said  or  done.  Axel 
was  beginning  to  hope  that  the  whole  thing  had 
blown  over — that  there  was  to  be  no  unpleasantness 
after  all  for  Anna.  Hearing  that  the  baroness  was 
nearly  well,  he  decided  to  go  and  call  at  Kleinwalde 
as  though  nothing  had  happened.  Some  time  or 
other  he  must  meet  Anna.  They  could  not  live  on 
adjoining  estates  and  never  see  each  other.  The  day 
after  his  birthday  he  arranged  to  go  round  in  the 
afternoon,  and  take  up  the  threads  of  ordinary 
intercourse  again,  however  much  it  made  him 
suffer. 

Meanwhile  Anna  did  her  business  in  Stralsund, 
discovered  on  interviewing  her  banker  that  she  had 
already  spent  more  than  two-thirds  of  a  whole  year's 
income,  lunched  pensively  after  that  on  ices  with 
Miss  Leech,  walked  down  to  the  quay  and  watched 
the  unloading  of  the  fishing-smacks  while  Fritz  and 
the  horses  had  their  dinner,  was  very  much  stared 
at  by  the  inhabitants  who  seldom  saw  anything  so 
pretty,  and  finally,  about  two  o'clock,  started  again 
for  home. 

As  they  drew  near  Axel's  gate,  and  she  was  pre- 
paring to  turn  her  face  away  from  its  ostentatious 
gaiety,  a  closed  Droschky  came  through  it  towards 
them,  followed  at  a  short  distance  by  a  second. 

Miss  Leech  said  nothing,  strange  though  this 
spectacle  was  on  that  quiet  road,  for  she  felt  that 
these  were  the  departing  guests,  and,  like  Anna,  she 
wondered  how  a  man  who  loved  in  vain  could  have 
the  heart  to  give  parties.  Anna  said  nothing  either, 
but  watched  the  approaching  Droschkes  curiously. 
Axel  was  sitting  in  the  first  one,  on  the  side  near 
her.  He  wore  his  ordinary  farming  clothes — the 
Norfolk  jacket,  and  the  soft  green  hat.      There  were 


38o  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

three  men  with  him,  seedy -looking  individuals  in 
black  coats.  She  bowed  instinctively,  for  he  was 
looking  out  of  the  window  full  at  her,  but  he  took  no 
notice.     She  turned  very  white. 

The  second  Droschky  contained  four  more  queer- 
looking  persons  in  black  clothes.  When  they  had 
passed,  Fritz  pulled  up  his  horses  of  his  own  accord, 
and  twisting  himself  round  stared  after  the  receding 
cloud  of  dust, 

Anna  had  been  cut  by  Axel  ;  but  it  was  not  that 
that  made  her  turn  so  white-^it  was  something  in  his 
face.  He  had  looked  straight  at  her,  and  he  had 
not  seen  her. 

"  Who  are  those  people.^"  she  asked  Fritz  in  a 
voice  that  faltered,  she  did  not  know  why. 

Fritz  did  not  answer.  He  stared  down  the  road 
after  the  Droschkes,  shook  his  head,  began  to  scratch 
it,  jerked  himself  round  again  to  his  horses,  drove 
on  a  few  yards,  pulled  them  up  a  second  time,  looked 
back,  shook  his  head,  and  was  silent. 

"  Fritz,  do  you  know  them  ^ "  Anna  asked  more 
authoritatively. 

But  Fritz  only  mumbled  something  soothing  and 
drove  on. 

Anna  had  not  failed  to  notice  the  old  man's  face 
as  he  watched  the  departing  Droschkes ;  it  wore  an 
oddly  amazed  and  scared  expression.  Her  heart 
seemed  to  sink  within  her  like  a  stone,  yet  she  could 
give  herself  no  reason  for  it.  She  tried  to  order  him 
to  turn  up  the  avenue  to  Axel's  house,  but  her  lips 
were  dry,  and  the  words  would  not  come  ;  and  while 
she  was  struggling  to  speak  the  gate  was  passed. 
Then  she  was  relieved  that  it  was  passed,  for  how 
could  she,  only  because  she  had  a  presentiment  of 
trouble,  go  to  Axel's  house  "i     What  did  she  think 


XXX  THE  BENEFACTRESS  381 

of  doing  there?  Miss  Leech  glanced  at  her,  and 
asked  if  anything  was  the  matter. 

"  No,"  said  Anna  in  a  whisper,  looking  straight 
before  her.  Nor  was  there  anything  the  matter  ; 
only  that  blind  look  on  Axel's  face,  and  the  strange 
feeling  in  her  heart. 

A  knot  of  people  stood  outside  the  post-office 
talking  eagerly.  They  all  stopped  talking  to  stare 
at  Anna  when  the  carriage  came  round  the  corner. 
Fritz  whipped  up  his  horses  and  drove  past  them  at 
a  gallop. 

"Wait — ^I  want  to  get  out,"  cried  Anna  as  they 
came  to  the  parsonage.  "  Do  you  mind  waiting  ^  " 
she  asked  Miss  Leech.  "  I  want  to  speak  to  Herr 
Pastor.     I  will  not  be  a  moment." 

She  went  up  the  little  trim  path  to  the  porch. 
The  maid-of-all-work  was  clearing  away  the  coffee 
from  the  table.  Frau  Manske  came  bustling  out 
when  she  heard  Anna's  voice  asking  for  her  husband. 
She  looked  extraordinarily  excited.  "  He  has  not 
come  back  yet,"  she  cried  before  Anna  could  speak, 
"  he  is  still  at  the  Schloss.  Gott  Dm  Allmdchtiger, 
did  one  ever  hear  of  anything  so  terrible.?  " 

Anna  looked  at  her,  her  face  as  white  as  her  dress. 
"  Tell  me,"  she  tried  to  say  ;  but  no  sound  passed 
her  lips.  She  made  a  great  effort,  and  the  words 
came  in  a  whisper  :   "  Tell  me,"  she  said. 

"  What,  the  gracious  Miss  has  not  heard  '^.  Herr 
von  Lohm  has  been  arrested." 

It  was  impossible  not  to  enjoy  imparting  so 
tremendous  a  piece  of  news,  however  genuinely 
shocked  one  might  be.  Frau  Manske  brouQ-ht  it 
out  with  a  ring  of  pride.  It  would  not  be  easy  to 
beat,  she  felt,  in  the  way  of  news.  Then  she  re- 
membered  the   gossip    about   Anna    and   Axel,   and 


382  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

observed  her  with  increased  interest.  Was  she  going 
to  faint  ?  It  would  be  the  only  becoming  course 
for  her  to  take  if  it  were  true  that  there  had  been 
courting. 

But  Anna,  whose  voice  had  failed  her  before, 
when  once  she  had  heard  what  it  was  that  had 
happened,  seemed  curiously  cold  and  composed. 
"What  was  he  accused  of?"  was  all  she  asked; 
so  calmly,  Frau  Manske  afterwards  told  her  friends, 
that  it  was  not  even  womanly  in  the  face  of  so  great 
a  misfortune. 

"  He  set  fire  to  the  stables,"  said  Frau  Manske. 

"  It  is  a  lie,"  said  Anna  ;  also,  as  Frau  Manske 
afterwards  pointed  out  to  her  friends,  an  unwomanly 
remark. 

"  He  did  it  himself  to  get  the  insurance  money." 

"  It  is  a  lie,"  repeated  Anna,  in  that  cold  voice. 

"  Eye-witnesses  will  swear  to  it." 

"  They  will  lie,"  said  Anna  again  ;  and  turned  and 
walked  away.  "  Go  on,"  she  said  to  Fritz,  taking 
her  place  beside  Miss  Leech. 

She  sat  quite  silent  till  they  were  near  the  house. 
Then  she  called  to  the  coachman  to  stop.  "  I  am 
going  into  the  forest  for  a  little  while,"  she  said, 
jumping  out.  "  You  drive  on  home."  And  she 
crossed  the  road  quickly,  her  white  dress  fluttering 
for  a  moment  between  the  pine -trunks,  and  then 
disappearing  in  the  soft  green  shadow. 

Miss  Leech  drove  on  alone,  sighing  gently. 
Something  was  troubling  her  dear  Miss  Estcourt, 
Something  out  of  the  ordinary  had  happened.  She 
wished  she  could  help  her.     She  drove  on,  sighing. 

Directly  the  road  was  out  of  sight,  Anna  struck 
back  again  to  the  left,  across  the  moss  and  lichen, 
towards  the  place  where  she  knew  there  was  a  path 


XXX  THE  BENEFACTRESS  383 

that  led  to  Lohm.  She  walked  very  straight  and 
very  quickly.  She  did  not  miss  her  way,  but  found 
the  path  and  hastened  her  steps  to  a  run.  What 
were  they  doing  to  Axel  ?  She  was  going  to  his 
house,  alone.  People  would  talk.  Who  cared  ^ 
And  when  she  had  heard  all  that  could  be  told  her 
there,  she  was  going  to  Axel  himself.  People  would 
talk.  Who  cared .''  The  laughable  indifference  of 
slander,  when  big  issues  of  life  and  death  were  at 
stake  !  All  the  tongues  of  all  the  world  should  not 
frighten  her  away  from  Axel.  Her  eyes  had  a  new 
look  in  them.  For  the  first  time  she  was  wide  awake, 
was  facing  life  as  it  is  without  dreams,  facing  its 
absolute  cruelty  and  pitilessness.  This  v/as  life, 
these  were  the  realities — suffering,  injustice,  and 
shame  ;  not  to  be  avoided  apparently  by  the  most 
honourable  and  innocent  of  men  ;  but  at  least  to  be 
fought  with  all  the  weapons  in  one's  power,  with 
unflinching  courage  to  the  end,  whatever  that  end 
might  be.  That  was  what  one  needed  most,  of  all  the 
gifts  of  the  gods — not  happiness — oh,  foolish,  childish 
dream !  how  could  there  be  happiness  so  long  as  men 
were  wicked  ^ — but  courage.  That  blind  look  on 
Axel's  face — no,  she  would  not  think  of  that  ;  it  tore 
her  heart.  She  stumbled  a  little  as  she  ran — no,  she 
would  not  think  of  that. 

Out  in  the  open,  between  the  forest  and  Lohm, 
she  met  Manske.  "  I  was  coming  to  you,"  he 
said. 

"  I  am  going  to  him,"  said  Anna. 

"  Oh,  my  dear  young  lady  !  "  cried  Manske  ;  and 
two  big  tears  rolled  down  his  face. 

"Don't  cry,"  she  said,  "it  does  not  help  him." 

"  How  can  I  not  do  so  after  seeing  what  I  have 
this  day  seen.^  " 


384  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

She  hurried  on.  "Come,"  she  said,  "we  must 
not  waste  time.  He  needs  help.  I  am  going  to  his 
house  to  see  what  I  can  do.  Where  did  they  take 
him  ?  " 

"  They  took  him  to  prison." 

"  Where  ?  " 

"  Stralsund." 

"  Will  he  be  there  long  ?  " 

"  Till  after  the  trial." 

"And  that  will  be.?" 

"  God  knows." 

"  I  am  going  to  him.  Come  with  me.  We  will 
take  his  horses." 

"Oh,  dear  Miss,  dear  Miss,"  cried  Manske, 
wringing  his  hands,  "  they  will  not  let  us  see  him — 
you  they  will  not  let  in  under  any  circumstances,  and 
me  only  across  mountains  of  obstacles.  The  official 
who  conducted  the  arrest,  when  I  prayed  for  per- 
mission to  visit  my  dear  patron,  was  brutality  itself. 
'  Why  should  you  visit  him  ? '  he  asked,  sneering. 
'  The  prison  chaplain  will  do  all  that  is  needful  for 
his  soul.'  '  Let  it  be,  Manske,'  said  my  dear  patron, 
but  still  I  prayed.  '  I  cannot  give  you  permission,' 
said  the  man  at  last,  weary  of  my  importunity  ;  '  it 
rests  with  my  chief.     You  must  go  to  him.' " 

"Who  is  the  chief.?" 

"  I  know  not.  I  know  nothing.  My  head  is  in 
a  whirl." 

"  He  must  be  somewhere  in  Stralsund.  We  will 
find  him,  if  we  have  to  ask  from  door  to  door.  And 
I'll  get  permission  for  myself." 

"  Oh,  dearest  Miss,  none  will  be  given  you.  The 
man  said  only  his  nearest  relatives,  and  those  only 
very  seldom — for  I  asked  all  I  could ;  I  felt  the 
moments  were  priceless — my  dear  patron  spoke  not  a 


XXX  THE  BENEFACTRESS  385 

word.  '  His  wife,  if  he  has  one,'  said  the  man, 
making  hideous  pleasantries — he  well  knew  there  is 
no  wife — or  his  Braut,  if  there  is  one,  or  a  brother 
or  a  sister,  but  no  one  else." 

"  Do  his  brothers  and  Trudi  know?  " 

"  I  at  once  telegraphed  to  them." 

"Then  they  will  be  here  to-night." 

The  women  and  children  in  the  village  ran  out  to 
look  at  Anna  as  she  passed.  She  did  not  see  them. 
Axel's  house  stood  open.  The  Mamsell,  overcome 
by  the  shame  of  having  been  in  such  a  service,  was 
in  hysterics  in  the  kitchen,  and  the  inspector,  a 
devoted  servant  who  loved  his  master,  was  upbraiding 
her  with  bitterest  indignation  for  daring  to  say  such 
things  of  such  a  master.  The  Mamsell's  laments  and 
the  inspector's  furious  reproaches  echoed  through 
the  empty  house.  The  door,  like  the  gate,  was 
garlanded  with  flowers.  Little  more  than  an  hour 
had  gone  by  since  Axel  passed  out  beneath  them  to 
ruin. 

Anna  went  straight  to  the  study.  His  papers 
were  lying  about  in  disorder  ;  the  drawer  of  the 
writing-table  was  unlocked,  and  his  keys  hung  in  it. 
He  had  been  writing  letters,  evidently,  for  an 
unfinished  one  lay  on  the  table.  She  stood  a  moment 
quite  still  in  the  silent  room.  Manske  had  gone  to 
find  the  coachman,  and  she  could  hear  his  steps  on 
the  stones  beneath  the  open  windows.  The  desolation 
of  the  deserted  room,  the  terrible  sense  of  misfortune 
worse  than  death  that  brooded  over  it,  struck  her 
like  a  blow  that  for  ever  destroyed  her  cheerful 
youth.  She  never  forgot  the  look  and  the  feeling  of 
that  room.  She  went  to  the  writing-table,  dropped 
on  her  knees,  and  laid  her  cheek,  with  an  abandon- 
ment of  tenderness,  on  the  open,  unfinished  letter. 

2  c 


386  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

"How    are    such    things    possible  —  how    are    they 

possible "   she   murmured  passionately,  shutting 

her  eyes  to  press  back  the  useless  tears.  "  So  useless  to 
cry,  so  useless,"  she  repeated  piteously,  as  she  felt 
the  scalding  tears,  in  spite  of  all  her  efforts  to  keep 
them  back,  stealing  through  her  eyelashes.  And 
everything  else  that  she  did  or  could  do — how  use- 
less. What  could  she  do  for  him,  who  had  no  claim 
on  him  at  all  ^  How  could  she  reach  him  across 
this  gulf  of  misery .?  Yes,  it  was  good  to  be  brave 
in  this  world,  it  was  good  to  have  courage  ;  but 
courage  without  weapons — of  what  use  was  it .?  She 
was  a  woman,  a  stranger  in  a  strange  land,  she  had 
no  friends,  no  influence — she  was  useless.  Manske 
found  her  kneeling  there,  holding  the  writing-table 
tightly  in  her  outstretched  arms,  pressing  her  bosom 
against  it  as  though  it  were  something  that  could 
feel,  her  eyes  shut,  her  face  a  desolation.  "  Do  not 
cry,"  he  begged  in  his  turn  ;  "  dearest  Miss,  do  not 
cry — it  cannot  help  him." 

They  locked  up  his  papers  and  everything  that 
they  thought  might  be  of  value  before  they  left. 
Manske  took  the  keys.  Anna  half  put  out  her  hand 
for  them,  then  dropped  it  at  her  side.  She  had  less 
claim  than  Manske  :  he  was  Axel's  pastor  ;  she  was 
nothing  to  him  at  all. 

They  left  the  dog-cart  at  the  entrance  to  the 
town  and  went  in  search  of  a  Droschke.  Manske's 
weather-beaten  face  flushed  a  dull  red  when  he  gave 
the  order  to  drive  to  the  prison.  The  prison  was  in 
a  by-street  of  shabby  houses.  Heads  appeared  at 
the  windows  of  the  houses  as  the  Droschke  rattled 
up  over  the  rough  stones,  and  the  children  playing 
about  the  doors  and  gutters  stopped  their  games  and 
crowded  round  to  stare. 


XXX  THE  BENEFACTRESS  387 

They  went  up  the  dirty  steps  and  rang  the  bell. 
The  door  was  immediately  opened  a  few  inches  by 
an  official  who  shouted  "  The  visiting  hour  is  past," 
and  shut  it  again. 

Manske  rang  a  second  time. 

"  Well,  what  do  you  want  ? "  asked  the  man 
angrily,  thrusting  out  his  head. 

Manske  stated,  in  the  mildest,  most  conciliatory 
tones,  that  he  would  be  infinitely  obliged  if  he  would 
tell  him  what  steps  he  ought  to  take  to  obtain 
permission  to  visit  one  of  the  inmates. 

*'  You  must  have  a  written  order,"  snapped  the 
man,  preparing  to  shut  the  door  again.  The  street 
children  were  clustering  at  the  bottom  of  the  steps, 
listening  eagerly. 

"  To  whom  should  I  apply.?  "  asked  Manske. 

"  To  the  judge  who  has  conducted  the  preliminary 
inquiries." 

The  door  was  slammed,  and  locked  from  within 
with  a  great  noise  of  rattling  keys.  The  sound  of 
the  keys  made  Anna  feel  faint  ;  Axel  was  on  the 
other  side  of  that  ostentation  of  brute  force.  She 
leaned  against  the  wall  shivering.  The  children 
tittered  ;  she  was  a  very  fine  lady,  they  thought,  to 
have  friends  in  there. 

"  The  judge  who  conducted  the  preliminary 
inquiries,"  repeated  Manske,  looking  dazed.  "  Who 
may  he  be  ?  Where  shall  we  find  him  ?  I  fear  I  am 
sadly  inexperienced  in  these  matters." 

There  was  nothing  to  be  done  but  to  face  the 
official's  wrath  once  more.  He  timidly  rang  the 
bell  again.  This  time  he  was  kept  waiting.  There 
was  a  little  round  window  in  the  door,  and  he  could 
see  the  man  on  the  other  side  leaning  against  a  table 
trimming   his   nails.     The  man  also  could  see  him. 


388  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

Manske  began  to  knock  on  the  glass  in  his  despera- 
tion.    The  man  remained  absorbed  by  his  nails. 

Anna  was  suffering  a  martyrdom.  Her  head 
drooped  lower  and  lower.  The  children  laughed 
loud.  Just  then  heavy  steps  were  heard  approaching 
on  the  pavement,  and  the  children  fled  with  one 
accord.  Immediately  afterwards  an  official,  appar- 
ently of  a  higher  grade  than  the  man  within,  came 
up.  He  glanced  curiously  at  the  two  suppliants  as 
he  thrust  his  hand  into  his  pocket  and  pulled  out  a 
key.  Before  he  could  fit  it  in  the  lock  the  man  on 
the  other  side  had  seen  him,  had  sprung  to  the  door, 
flung  it  open,  and  stood  at  attention. 

Manske  saw  that  here  was  his  opportunity.  He 
snatched  off  his  hat.  "  Sir,"  he  cried,  "  one  moment, 
for  God's  sake." 

"Well.''"  inquired  the  official  sharply. 

"  Where  can  I  obtain  an  order  of  admission  ?  " 

"  To  see ?  " 

"  My  dear  patron,  Herr  von  Lohm,  who  by  some 
incomprehensible  and  appalling  mistake " 

"You  must  go  to  the  judge  who  conducted  the 
preliminary  inquiries." 

"  But  who  is  he,  and  where  is  he  to  be  found  ? " 

The  official  looked  at  his  watch.  "  If  you  hurry 
you  may  still  find  him  at  the  Law  Courts.  In  the 
next  street.     Examining  Judge  Schultz." 

And  the  door  was  shut. 

So  they  went  to  the  Law  Courts,  and  hurried  up 
and  down  staircases  and  along  endless  corridors, 
vainly  looking  for  some  one  to  direct  them  to  Ex- 
amining Judge  Schultz.  The  building  was  empty  ; 
they  did  not  meet  a  soul,  and  they  went  down  one 
passage  after  the  other,  anguish  in  Anna's  heart,  and 
misery  hardly  less  acute  in  Manske's.     At  last  they 


XXX  THE  BENEFACTRESS  389 

heard  distant  voices  echoing  through  the  emptiness. 
They  followed  the  sound,  and  found  two  women 
cleaning. 

"  Can  you  direct  me  to  the  room  of  the  Examin- 
ing Judge  Schultz  .f'  "  asked  Manske,  bowing  politely. 

"  The  gentlemen  have  all  gone  home.  Business 
hours  are  over,"  was  the  answer.  Could  they  per- 
haps give  his  private  address  ^  No,  they  could  not ; 
perhaps  the  porter  knew.  Where  was  the  porter  ^ 
Somewhere  about. 

They  hurried  downstairs  again  in  search  of  the 
porter.  Another  ten  minutes  was  wasted  looking 
for  him.  They  saw  him  at  last  through  the  glass  of 
the  entrance  door,  airing  himself  on  the  steps. 

The  porter  gave  them  the  address,  and  they  lost 
some  more  minutes  trying  to  find  their  Droschke^ 
for  they  had  come  out  at  a  different  entrance  from 
the  one  they  had  gone  in  by.  By  this  time  Manske 
was  speechless,  and  Anna  was  half  dead. 

They  climbed  three  flights  of  stairs  to  the  Examin- 
ing Judge's  flat,  and  after  being  kept  waiting  a  long 
while — "■  Der  Herr  Untersuchungsrichter  ist  bei  Tisch,'' 
the  slovenly  girl  had  announced — were  told  by  him 
very  curtly  that  they  must  go  to  the  Public  Prose- 
cutor for  the  order.  Anna  went  out  without  a  word. 
Manske  bowed  and  apologised  profusely  for  having 
disturbed  the  Herr  Untersuchungsrichter  at  his  re- 
past ;  he  felt  the  necessity  of  grovelling  before  these 
persons  whose  power  was  so  almighty.  The  Ex- 
amining Judge  made  no  reply  whatever  to  these 
piteous  amiabilities,  but  turned  on  his  heel,  leaving 
them  to  find  the  door  as  best  they  could. 

The  Public  Prosecutor  lived  at  the  other  end  of 
the  town.  They  neither  of  them  spoke  a  word  on 
the  way  there.     In  answer  to  their  anxious  inquiry 


390  THE  BENEFACTRESS        ch.  xxx 

whether  they  could  speak  to  him,  the  woman  who 
opened  the  door  said  that  her  master  was  asleep  ;  it 
was  his  hour  for  repose,  having  just  supped,  and  he 
could  not  possibly  be  disturbed. 

Anna  began  to  cry,  Manske  gripped  hold  of  her 
hand  and  held  it  fast,  patting  it  while  he  continued 
to  question  the  servant.  "  He  will  see  no  one  so 
late,"  she  said.  "  He  will  sleep  now  till  nine,  and 
then  go  out.     You  must  come  to-morrow." 

"At  what  time  .?  " 

"  At  ten  he  goes  to  the  Law  Courts.  You  must 
come  before  then." 

"Thank  you,"  said  Manske,  and  drew  Anna 
away.  "  Do  not  cry,  liebes  Kind,'"  he  implored,  his 
own  eyes  brimming  with  miserable  tears.  "  Do  not 
let  the  coachman  see  you  like  this.  We  must  go 
home  now.  There  is  nothing  to  be  done.  We  will 
come  early  to-morrow,  and  have  more  success." 

They  stopped  a  moment  in  the  dark  entrance 
below,  trying  to  compose  their  faces  before  going 
out.  They  did  not  dare  look  at  each  other.  Then 
they  went  out  and  drove  away. 

The  stars  were  shining  as  they  passed  along  the 
quiet  country  road,  and  all  the  way  was  drenched 
with  the  fragrance  of  clover  and  freshly-cut  hay. 
The  sky  above  the  rye-fields  on  the  left  was  still 
rosy.  Not  a  leaf  stirred.  Once,  when  the  coach- 
man stopped  to  take  a  stone  out  of  a  horse's  shoe,  they 
could  hear  the  crickets,  and  the  cheerful  humming  of 
a  column  of  gnats  high  above  their  heads. 


CHAPTER  XXXI 

GusTAV  VON  LoHM  fouiid  Manskc's  telegram  on  his 
table  when  he  came  in  with  his  wife  from  his  after- 
noon ride  in  the  Thiergarten. 

"What  is  it?"  she  inquired,  seeing  him  turn 
pale  ;  and  she  took  it  out  of  his  hand  and  read  it. 
"  Disgraceful,"  she  murmured. 

"  I  must  go  at  once,"  he  said,  looking  round 
helplessly. 

"Go?" 

When  a  wife  says  "  Go  ?  "  in  that  voice,  if  she  is 
a  person  of  determination  and  her  husband  is  a  person 
of  peace,  he  does  not  go  ;  he  stays.  Gustav  stayed. 
It  is  true  that  at  first  he  decided  to  leave  Berlin  by 
the  early  train  next  morning  ;  but  his  wife  employed 
the  hours  of  darkness  addressing  him,  as  he  lay 
sleepless,  in  the  language  of  wisdom  ;  and  the  wisdom 
being  of  that  robust  type  known  as  worldly,  it 
inevitably  produced  its  effect  on  a  mind  naturally 
receptive. 

"  Relations,"  she  said,  "  are  at  all  times  bad 
enough.  They  do  less  for  you  and  expect  more 
from  you  than  any  one  else.  They  are  the  last  to 
congratulate  if  you  succeed,  and  the  first  to  abandon 
if  you  fail.  They  are  at  one  and  the  same  time 
abnormally  truthful  and  abnormally  sensitive.     They 


392  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

regard  it  as  infinitely  more  blessed  to  administer 
home-truths  than  to  receive  them  back  again.  But, 
so  long  as  they  do  not  actually  break  the  laws,  pre- 
judice demands  that  they  shall  be  borne  with.  In  my 
tamily  no  one  ever  broke  the  laws.  It  has  been 
reserved  for  my  married  life,  this  connection  with 
criminals." 

She  was  a  woman  of  ready  and  frequent  speech, 
and  she  continued  in  this  strain  for  some  time. 
Towards  morning,  nature  refusing  to  endure  more, 
Gustav  fell  asleep  ;  and  when  he  woke  the  early  train 
was  gone. 

In  the  same  manner  did  his  wife  prevent  his  writ- 
ing to  his  unhappy  brother.  "  It  is  sad  that  such 
things  should  be,"  she  said, — "  sad  that  a  man  of  birth 
should  commit  so  vulgar  a  crime  ;  but  he  has  done 
it,  he  has  disgraced  us,  he  has  struck  a  blow  at  our 
social  position  which  may  easily,  if  we  are  not  careful, 
prove  fatal.  Take  my  advice — have  nothing  to  do 
with  him.  Leave  him  to  be  dealt  with  as  the  law 
shall  demand.  We  who  abide  by  the  laws  are  surely 
justified  in  shunning,  in  abhorring,  those  who  de- 
liberately break  them.     Leave  him  alone." 

And  Gustav  left  him  alone. 

Trudi  was  at  a  picnic  when  the  telegram  reached 
her  fiat.  With  several  of  her  female  friends  and  a 
great  many  lieutenants  she  was  playing  at  being 
frisky  among  the  haycocks  beyond  the  town.  Her 
two  little  boys,  Billy  and  Tommy,  who  would  really 
have  enjoyed  haycocks,  were  left  sternly  at  home. 
She  invited  the  whole  party  to  supper  at  her  flat,  and 
drove  home  in  the  dog-cart  of  the  richest  of  the 
young  men,  making  immense  efibrts  to  please  him, 
and  feeling  that  she  must  be  looking  very  picturesque 
and  sweet  in  her  flower-trimmed  straw  hat  and  muslin 


XXXI  THE  BENEFACTRESS  393 

dress,  silhouetted  against  the  pale  gold  of  the  evening 
sky. 

Her  eye  fell  on  the  telegram  as  the  picnic  party 
came  crowding  in. 

'*  Bill  coming  home  .'*  "  inquired  somebody. 

*'  I'm  afraid  he  is,"  she  said,  opening  it. 

She  read  it,  and  could  not  prevent  a  change  of 
expression.  There  was  a  burst  of  laughter.  The 
young  men  declared  they  would  never  marry.  The 
young  women,  prone  at  all  times  to  pity  other 
women's  husbands,  criticised  Trudi's  pale  face,  and 
secretly  pitied  Bill.  She  lit  a  cigarette,  flung  herself 
into  a  chair,  and  became  very  cheerful.  She  had 
never  been  so  amusing.  She  kept  them  in  a 
state  of  uproarious  mirth  till  the  small  hours.  The 
richest  lieutenant,  who  had  found  her  distinctly  a 
bore  during  the  drive  home,  went  away  feeling  quite 
affectionate.  When  they  had  all  gone,  she  dropped 
on  to  her  bed,  and  cried,  and  cried. 

It  was  in  the  papers  next  morning,  and  at  break- 
fast Trudi  and  her  family  were  in  every  mouth. 
Bibi  came  running  round,  genuinely  distressed.  She 
had  not  been  invited  to  the  picnic,  but  she  forgot 
that  in  her  sympathy.  "  I  wanted  to  catch  you 
before  you  start,"  she  said,  vigorously  embracing  her 
poor  friend. 

"  Where  should  I  start  for  ? "  asked  Trudi, 
offering  a  cold  cheek  to  Bibi's  kisses. 

"Are  you  not  going  to  Herr  von  Lohm  .-^ " 
exclaimed  Bibi,  open-mouthed. 

"  What,  when  he  tries  to  cheat  insurance 
companies  }  " 

"  But  he  never,  never  set  fire  to  those  buildings 
himself." 

"Didn't  he   though."     Trudi   turned   her   head, 


394  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

and  looked  straight  into  Bibi's  eyes.  "  I  know  him 
better  than  you  do,"  she  said  slowly. 

She  had  decided  that  that  was  the  only  way — to 
cast  him  off  altogether  ;  and  it  must  be  done  at  once 
and  thoroughly.  Indeed,  how  was  it  possible  not  to 
hate  him  ?  It  was  the  most  dreadful  thing  to  happen 
to  her.  She  would  suffer  by  it  in  every  way.  If  he 
were  guilty  or  not  guilty,  he  was  anyhow  a  fool  to 
let  himself  get  into  such  a  position  ;  and  how  she 
hated  such  fools  !  She  registered  a  solemn  vow  that 
she  had  done  with  Axel  for  ever. 

At  Kleinwalde  the  effect  of  the  news  was  to  make 
Frau  Dellwig  slay  a  pig  and  send  out  invitations  for 
an  unusually  large  Sunday  party.  She  and  her 
husband  could  hardly  veil  their  beaming  satisfaction 
with  a  decent  appearance  of  dismay.  "  What  would 
his  poor  father,  our  gracious  master's  oldest  friend, 
have  said !  "  ejaculated  Dellwig  at  dinner,  when  the 
servant  was  in  the  room. 

"  It  is  truly  merciful  that  he  did  not  live  to  see 
it,"  said  his  wife,  with  pious  head-shakings. 

What  Anna  was  doing  at  Stralsund,  no  one  knew. 
She  said  she  was  having  some  bother  with  her  bank. 
Miss  Leech  related  how  they  had  been  to  the  bank 
on  the  Monday.  "  I  must  go  again,"  Anna  said  on 
the  evening  of  the  fruitless  Tuesday,  when  she  had 
been  the  whole  day  again  with  Manske,  vainly  trying 
to  obtain  permission  to  visit  Axel  ;  and  she  added, 
her  head  drooping,  her  voice  faint,  that  it  was  a  great 
bore.     Certainly  she  looked  profoundly  unhappy. 

"  One  cannot  be  too  careful  in  money  matters," 
remarked  Frau  von  Treumann,  alarmed  by  Anna's 
white  looks,  and  afraid  lest  by  some  foolish  neglect 
on  her  part  supplies  should  cease.  She  enthusiastically 
encouraged  these  visits  to  the  bank.     "  Take  care  of 


XXXI  THE  BENEFACTRESS  395 

your  bank,  "  she  said,  "  and  your  bank  will  take  care 
of  you.     That  is  what  we  say  in  Germany," 

But  Anna  did  not  hear.  There  was  but  one 
thought  in  her  mind,  one  cry  in  her  heart — how 
could  she  reach,  how  could  she  help,  Axel  ? 

He  was  in  a  cell  about  five  yards  long  by 
three  wide.  There  was  just  room  to  pass  between 
the  camp  bedstead  and  the  small  deal  table  standing 
against  the  opposite  wall.  Besides  this  furniture, 
there  was  one  chair,  an  empty  wooden  box  turned  up 
on  end  with  a  tin  basin  on  it — that  was  his  washstand 
— a  little  shelf  fixed  on  the  wall,  and  on  the  little 
shelf  a  tin  mug,  a  tin  plate,  a  pot  of  salt,  a  small  loaf 
of  black  bread,  and  a  Bible.  The  walls  were  painted 
brown,  and  the  window,  fitted  with  ground  glass,  was 
high  up  near  the  ceiling  ;  it  was  barred  on  the  out- 
side, and  could  only  be  opened  a  few  inches  at  the 
top.  On  the  door  a  neat  printed  card  was  fastened, 
giving,  besides  information  for  the  guidance  of  the 
habitually  dirty  as  to  the  cleansing  properties  of 
water,  the  quantity  of  oakum  the  occupant  of  the 
cell  would  be  expected  to  pick  every  day.  The  cell 
was  used  sometimes  for  condemned  criminals — hence 
the  mention  of  the  oakum  ;  but  the  card  caught 
Axel's  eye  whenever  he  reached  that  end  of  the  room 
in  his  pacings  up  and  down,  and  without  knowing 
it  he  learnt  its  rules  by  heart. 

At  first  he  had  been  completely  dazed,  absolutely 
unable  to  understand  the  meaning  and  extent  of  the 
misfortune  that  had  overtaken  him  ;  but  there  was 
a  grim,  uncompromising  reality  about  the  prison, 
about  the  heavy  doors  he  passed  through,  each  one 
barred  and  locked  behind  him,  each  one  cutting  him 
ofi-'more  utterly  from  the  common  free  life  outside, 
about  the  look  of  the  miserable  beings  he  met  being 


396  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

taken  to  or  from  their  work  by  armed  warders,  about 
the  warders  themselves  with  their  great  keys,  polished 
by  frequent  use — there  was  about  these  things  an 
inexorable  reality  that  shook  him  out  of  the  blind 
apathy  into  which  he  had  fallen  after  his  arrest. 
Some  extraordinary  mistake  had  been  made  ;  and, 
knowing  that  he  had  done  nothing,  when  first  he  began 
to  think  connectedly  he  was  certain  that  it  rould  only 
be  a  matter  of  hours  before  he  was  released.  But  the 
horror  of  his  position  was  there.  Released  or  not 
released,  who  would  make  good  to  him  what  he  was 
suffering,  and  what  he  would  have  lost.?  He  had 
been  searched  on  his  arrival — his  money,  watch,  and 
a  ring  he  wore  of  his  mother's  taken  from  him.  The 
young  official  who  arrested  him — he  was  the  Junior 
Public  Prosecutor — presided  at  these  operations  with 
immense  zeal.  Being  young  and  obscure,  he  thirsted 
to  make  a  name  for  himself,  and  opportunities  were 
few  in  that  little  town.  To  be  put  in  charge,  there- 
fore, of  this  sensational  case,  was  to  behold  opening 
out  before  him  the  rosiest  prospects  for  the  future. 
His  name,  which  was  Meyer,  would  flare  up  in  flames 
of  glory  from  the  ashes  of  Axel's  honour.  Stralsund, 
ringing  with  the  ancient  name  of  Lohm,  would  be 
forced  to  ring  simultaneously  with  the  less  ancient 
and  not  in  itself  interesting  name  of  Meyer.  He  had 
arrested  Lohm,  he  had  special  charge  of  the  case,  he 
could  not  but  be  talked  about  at  last.  His  zeal  and 
satisfaction  accordingly  were  great,  carrying  him  far 
beyond  the  limits  usual  on  such  occasions.  Axel 
stood  amazed  at  the  trick  of  fortune  that  had  so 
suddenly  flung  him  into  the  power  of  a  young  man 
called  Meyer. 

Soon   after  he  was  locked   in   his    cell,   a  warder 
came  in  with  a  great  pot  of  liquid   food,   a   sort   of 


XXXI  THE  BENEFACTRESS  397 

thick  soup  made  chiefly  of  beans,  with  other  bodies, 
unknown  to  Axel,  floating  about  among  them. 

"  Your  plate,"  said  the  warder,  jerking  his  head 
in  the  direction  of  the  little  shelf  on  which  stood 
Axel's  dining  facilities  ;  and  he  raised  the  pot  pre- 
paratory to  pouring  out  some  of  its  contents. 

"  Thank  you,"  said  Axel,  "  I  don't  want  any." 

"You'll  be  hungry  then,"  said  the  man,  going 
away.     "  There  is  no  more  food  to-day." 

Axel  said  nothing,  and  he  went  out.  The  smell 
of  the  soup,  which  was  apparently  of  great  potency, 
filled  the  little  room.  Axel  tried  to  open  the  window 
wider,  but  though  he  was  tall  and  he  stood  on  his 
table,  he  could  not  reach  it. 

It  began  to  get  dark.  The  lamps  in  the  street 
below  were  lit,  and  the  shouts  of  the  children  at  play 
came  up  to  him.  He  guessed  that  it  must  be  past 
nine,  and  wondered  how  long  he  was  to  be  left  there 
without  a  light.  As  it  grew  darker,  his  thoughts  grew 
very  dark.  He  paced  up  and  down  more  and  more 
restlessly,  trying  to  force  them  into  clearness.  In 
the  hurry  and  dismay  he  had  left  his  keys  at  Lohm, 
he  remembered,  and  all  his  money  and  papers  were 
at  the  mercy  of  the  first-comer.  And  he  was  poor  ; 
he  could  not  afi^ord  to  lose  any  money,  or  any  time. 
Supposing  he  were  to  be  kept  here  more  than  a  few 
hours,  what  would  become  of  his  farming,  just  now 
at  its  busiest  season,  his  people  used  to  his  constant 
direction  and  control,  his  inspector  accustomed  to  do 
nothing  without  the  master's  orders  ?  And  what 
would  be  the  moral  efl^ect  on  them  of  his  arrest  ?  If 
he  had  a  pencil  and  paper  he  would  write  some  hasty 
messages  to  keep  them  all  at  their  posts  till  his 
return  ;  but  he  had  no  writing  materials — he  was 
quite  helpless.       He   had   sent  urgent  word   to  his 


398  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

lawyer  in  Stralsund,  telegraphing  to  him  through 
Manske  before  leaving  home,  and  he  had  expected  to 
find  him  waiting  for  him  at  the  prison.  But  he  had 
not  come.  Why  did  he  not  come  ?  Why  did  he 
leave  him  helpless  at  such  a  moment  .''  Axel  was 
determined  to  face  his  misfortune  quietly  ;  yet  the 
feeling  of  absolute  impotence,  of  being  as  it  were 
bound  hand  and  foot  when  there  was  such  dire 
necessity  for  immediate  action,  almost  broke  down 
his  resolution. 

But  it  was  only  for  a  few  hours,  he  assured  him- 
self, walking  faster,  thrusting  his  hands  deeper  into 
his  pockets,  and  he  could  bear  anything  for  a  few 
hours.  His  brothers  would  come  to  him — to- 
morrow the  first  thing  his  lawyer  would  certainly 
come.  It  was  all  so  extremely  absurd  ;  yet  it  was 
amazing  the  amount  of  suffering  one  such  absurd 
mistake  could  inflict.  "  Thank  God,"  he  exclaimed 
aloud,  stopping  in  his  walk,  struck  by  a  new  thought, 
"  thank  God  that  I  have  neither  wife  nor  children." 
And  he  paced  up  and  down  again  more  slowly,  his 
shoulders  bent,  his  head  sunk,  a  dull  flush  on  his 
face  ;  he  was  thinking  of  Anna. 

The  door  was  unlocked,  and  a  warder  with  a 
bull's  eye  lantern  came  in  quickly.  "  The  Public 
Prosecutor  is  coming  up,"  he  said  breathlessly. 
"  When  he  comes  in,  you  stand  at  attention  and 
recite  your  name  and  the  crime  of  which  you  are 
accused." 

He  had  hardly  finished  when  the  Public  Prosecutor 
appeared.  The  warder  sprang  to  attention.  Axel 
slowly  and  unwillingly  did  the  same. 

*'  Well  ?"  snarled  the  great  man,  as  Axel  did  not 
speak.  He  was  an  old  man,  with  a  face  grown  sly 
and  hard  during  years  of  association  with  criminals, 


XXXI  THE  BENEFACTRESS 


399 


of  experiences  confined  solely  to    the  ugly  sides  of 
life. 

"  My  name  is  Lohm,"  said  Axel,  feeling  the  folly 
of  attempting  to  defy  any  one  so  absolutely  powerful 
in  the  place  where  he  was  ;  and  he  proceeded  to  ex- 
plain the  crime  of  which  he  was  suspected. 

The  Public  Prosecutor,  who  knew  perfectly  well 
everything  about  him,  having  himself  arranged  every 
detail  of  the  arrest,  said  something  incomprehensible 
and  was  going  away. 

"  May  I  have  a  light  of  some  sort  ?  "  asked  Axel, 
*'  and  writing  materials .?  I  absolutely  must  be  able 
to 

*'  You  cannot  expect  the  luxuries  of  a  Schloss 
here,"  said  the  Public  Prosecutor  with  a  scowl, 
turning  on  his  heel  and  signing  to  the  warder  to 
lock  the  door  again.  And  he  continued  his  rounds, 
congratulating  himself  on  having  demonstrated  that 
in  his  independent  eye  the  bearer  of  the  most  ancient 
name  and  the  offscourings  of  the  street,  tried  or  un- 
tried, were  equal — sinners,  that  is,  all  of  them — and 
would  receive  exactly  the  same  treatment  at  his 
hands.  Indeed  he  was  so  anxious  to  impress  this 
laudable  impartiality  on  the  members  of  the  little 
prison -world,  which  was  the  only  world  he  knew, 
that  he  overshot  the  mark,  refusing  Axel  small  con- 
veniences that  he  would  have  unhesitatingly  granted 
a  suppliant  called  Schmidt,  Schultz,  or  Meyer. 

It  was  now  quite  dark,  except  for  the  faint  light 
from  the  lamps  in  the  street  below.  Weary  to 
death.  Axel  flung  himself  down  on  the  little  bed. 
He  had  brought  a  few  necessaries,  hastily  thrown 
into  a  bag  by  his  servant, — necessaries  that  had  first 
been  carefully  handled  and  inspected  with  every 
symptom  of  distrust  by  the  Junior  Public  Prosecutor 


400  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

Meyer  ;  but  he  did  not  unpack  them.  Judging 
from  the  shortness  of  the  bed,  he  concluded  that 
criminals  must  be  a  stunted  race.  Sleeping  was  not 
made  easy  by  this  bed,  and  he  lay  awake  staring  at 
the  shadows  cast  by  the  iron  bars  outside  his  window 
on  to  the  ceiling.  These  shadows  affected  him  oddly. 
He  shut  his  eyes,  but  still  he  saw  them  ;  he  turned 
his  head  to  the  wall  and  tried  not  to  think  of  them, 
but  still  he  saw  them.  They  expressed  the  whole 
misery  of  his  situation. 

He  had  dozed  off,  worn  out,  when  a  bright  light 
on  his  face  woke  him.  He  started  up  in  bed,  con- 
fused, hardly  remembering  where  he  was.  A  feeling 
very  nearly  resembling  horror  came  over  him.  A 
bull's  eye  lantern  was  being  held  close  to  his  face. 
He  could  see  nothing  but  the  bright  light.  The 
man  holding  it  did  not  speak,  and  presently  backed 
out  again,  bolting  the  door  behind  him.  Axel  lay 
down,  reflecting  that  such  surprises,  added  to  anxiety 
and  bad  food,  must  wear  out  a  suspected  culprit's 
nerves  with  extraordinary  rapidity  and  thoroughness. 
There  could  not,  he  thought,  be  much  left  of  a  man 
in  the  way  of  brains  and  calmness  by  the  time  he  was 
taken  before  the  judge  to  clear  himself.  The  inci- 
dent completely  banished  all  tendency  to  sleep.  He 
remained  wide  awake  after  that,  tormented  by  anxious 
thoughts. 

Towards  dawn,  for  which  he  thanked  God  when 
it  came,  the  silence  of  the  prison  was  broken  by 
screams.  He  started  up  again  and  listened,  his 
blood  frozen  by  the  sound  of  them.  They  were 
terrible  to  hear,  echoing  through  that  place.  Again 
a  feeling  of  sheer  horror  came  over  him.  How 
long  would  he  be  able  to  endure  these  things.? 
The  screams  grew  more  and  more   appalling.     He 


XXXI  THE  BENEFACTRESS  401 

sprang  up  and  went  to  the  door,  and  listened  there. 
He  thought  he  heard  steps  outside,  and  knocked. 
"  What  is  that  screaming.''"  he  cried  out.  But  no 
one  answered.  The  shrieks  reached  a  climax  of 
anguish,  and  suddenly  stopped.  Deathlike  stillness 
fell  again  upon  the  prison.  Axel  spent  what  was 
left  of  the  night  pacing  up  and  down. 

The  prison  day  did  not  begin  till  six.  Axel,  used 
to  his  busy  country  life  that  got  him  out  of  his  bed 
and  on  to  his  horse  at  four  these  fine  summer  morn- 
ings, heard  sounds  of  life  below  in  the  street — early 
carts  and  voices — long  before  life  stirred  within  the 
walls.  He  understood  afterwards  why  the  inmates 
were  allowed  to  lie  in  bed  so  long  :  it  was  convenient 
for  the  warders.  The  prisoners  rose  at  six,  and  went 
to  bed  again  at  six,  in  the  full  sunshine  of  those  June 
afternoons.  Thus  disposed  of,  the  warders  could 
relax  their  vigilance  and  enjoy  some  hours  of  rest. 
The  effect,  moralising  or  the  reverse,  on  the  prisoners, 
who  could  by  no  means  get  themselves  off  to  sleep 
at  six  o'clock,  was  of  the  supremest  indifference  to 
every  one  concerned.  Axel,  not  yet  having  been 
tried,  and  not  yet  therefore  having  been  placed  in  the 
common  dormitory,  was  not  forced  into  bed  at  any 
particular  time.  He  might  enjoy  evenings  as  long 
as  those  of  the  warders  if  he  chose,  and  he  might  get 
up  as  early  as  though  his  horse  were  waiting  below  to 
take  him  to  his  hay-fields  if  he  liked  ;  but  this  privi- 
lege, without  the  means  of  employing  the  extra  hours, 
was  valueless.  He  watched  anxiously  for  the  broad 
daylight  that  would  bring  his  lawyer  and  put  an  end 
to  this  first  martyrdom  of  helpless  waiting.  Towards 
seven,  one  of  the  prisoners,  whose  good  conduct  had 
procured  him  promotion  to  cleaning  the  passages  and 
doing  other  work  of  the  kind,  brought  him  another 

2  D 


402  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

loaf  of  bread  and  a  pot  of  coffee.  From  this  young 
man,  a  white-faced,  artful-looking  youth,  with  closely- 
cropped  hair  and  wearing  the  coarse,  brown  prison 
dress,  Axel  heard  that  the  ghastly  screams  in  the  night 
came  from  a  prisoner  who  had  delirium  tremens;  he 
had  been  put  in  the  cellar  to  get  over  the  attack ;  he 
could  scream  as  loud  as  he  liked  there,  and  no  one 
would  hear  him  ;  they  always  put  him  in  the  cellar 
when  the  attacks  came  on.  The  young  man  grinned. 
Evidently  he  thought  the  arrangement  both  good  and 
funny. 

"  Poor  wretch,"  said  Axel,  profoundly  pitying 
those  other  wretched  human  beings,  his  fellow- 
prisoners. 

"  Oh,  he  is  very  happy  there.  He  plays  all  day 
long  at  catching  the  rats." 

"  The  rats  ^  " 

"  They  say  there  are  no  rats — that  he  only  thinks 
he  sees  them.  But  whether  the  rats  are  real  or  not 
it  amuses  him  trying  to  catch  them.  When  he  is 
quiet  again,  he  is  brought  back  to  us." 

A  warder  appeared  and  said  there  was  too  much 
talking.  The  young  man  slid  away  swiftly  and 
silently.  He  was  a  thief  by  profession,  of  superior 
skill  and  intelligence. 

Axel  ate  part  of  the  bread,  and  succeeded  in  swallow- 
ing some  of  the  coffee,  and  then  began  his  walk  again, 
up  and  down,  up  and  down,  listening  intently  at  the 
door  each  time  he  came  to  it  for  sounds  of  his  lawyer's 
approach.  The  morning  must  be  half  way  through, 
he  thought  ;  why  did  he  not  come  ^  How  could  he 
let  him  wait  at  such  a  crisis.''  How  could  any  of 
them — Gustav,  Trudi,  Manske — let  him  wait  at  such 
a  crisis  ^  He  grew  terribly  anxious.  He  had  ex- 
pected Gustav  by  the   first  train    from   Berlin  ;    he 


XXXI  THE  BENEFACTRESS  403 

might  have  been  with  him  by  nine  o'clock.  The 
other  brother,  he  knew,  would  be  less  easily  reached 
by  the  telegram — he  was  attached  to  the  person  of  a 
prince  whose  movements  were  uncertain ;  but  Gustav  ? 
Well,  he  must  be  patient ;  he  may  not  have  been  at 
home  ;  the  next  train  arrived  in  the  afternoon  ;  he 
would  come  by  that. 

The  door  opened,  and  he  turned  eagerly  ;  but  it 
was  the  Public  Prosecutor  again. 

"  Name,  name,  and  crime  !  "  frantically  whispered 
the  accompanying  warder,  as  Axel  stood  silent.  Axel 
repeated  the  formula  of  the  night  before.  Every  time 
these  visits  were  made  he  had  to  go  through  this  per- 
formance, his  heels  together,  his  body  rigid 

*'Bed  not  made,"  said  the  Public  Prosecutor. 

"Bed  not  made."  repeated  the  warder,  glaring  at 
Axel. 

"  Make  it,"  ordered  the  chief;  and  went  out. 

"  Make  it,"  hissed  the  warder ;  and  followed 
him. 

His  lawyer  came  in  simultaneously  with  his 
dinner. 

*'  Plate,"  said  the  warder  with  the  pot. 

"  This  is  a  sad  sight,  Herr  von  Lohm,"  said  the 
lawyer. 

"It  is,"  agreed  Axel,  reaching  down  his  plate. 
He  allowed  some  of  the  mess  to  be  poured  into  it  ; 
he  was  not  going  to  starve  only  because  the  soup 
was  potent. 

"  I  expected  you  yesterday,"  he  said  to  the 
lawyer. 

"Ah — 1  was  engaged  yesterday." 

The  lawyer's  manner  was  so  peculiar  that  Axel 
stared  at  him,  doubtful  if  he  really  were  the  right 
man.      He    was    a    native    of  Stralsund,   and    Axel 


404  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

had  employed  him  ever  since  he  came  into  his 
estate,  and  had  found  his  work  satisfactory,  and 
his  manners  exceedingly  polite — so  polite,  indeed,  as 
to  verge  on  cringing  ;  but  then,  as  Manske  would 
have  pointed  out,  he  was  a  Jew.  Now  the  whole 
man  was  changed.  The  ingratiating  smiles,  the 
bows,  the  rubbed  hands,  where  were  they.^  The 
lawyer  sat  at  his  ease  on  the  one  chair,  his  hands  in 
his  pockets,  a  toothpick  in  his  mouth,  and  scrutinised 
Axel  while  he  told  him  his  case  with  an  insolent  look 
of  incredulity. 

"  He  actually  believes  I  set  the  place  on  fire," 
thought  Axel,  struck  by  the  look. 

He  did  actually  believe  it.  He  always  believed 
the  worst,  for  his  experience  had  been  that  the  worst 
is  what  comes  most  often  nearest  the  truth  ;  but 
then,  as  Manske  would  have  explained,  he  was  a  Jew. 

The  interview  was  extremely  unsatisfactory.  "  I 
have  an  appointment,"  said  the  lawyer,  pulling  out 
his  watch  before  they  had  half  discussed  the  situa- 
tion. 

"  You  appear  to  forget  that  this  is  a  matter  of 
enormous  importance  to  me,"  said  Axel,  wrath  in 
his  eyes  and  voice. 

*'  That  is  what  each  of  my  clients  invariably 
says,"  replied  the  lawyer,  stretching  across  the  table 
for  his  gloves. 

"  How  can  we  arrange  anything  in  a  ten  minutes' 
conversation.'*  "  inquired  Axel  indignantly. 

The  lawyer  shrugged  his  shoulders.  "  I  cannot 
neglect  all  my  other  business." 

"  I  do  not  remember  your  having  been  so  pressed 
for  time  formerly.  I  shall  expect  you  again  this 
afternoon." 

"  An  impossibihty." 


XXXI  THE  BENEFACTRESS  405 

"  Then  to-morrow  the  first  thing.  That  is,  if  I 
am  still  here." 

The  lawyer  grinned.  "It  is  not  so  easy  to  get 
out  of  these  places  as  it  is  to  get  in,"  he  said,  draw- 
ing on  his  gloves.  "  By  the  way,  my  fees  in  such 
cases  are  payable  beforehand." 

Axel  flushed.  He  could  hardly  believe  the 
evidence  of  his  senses  that  this  was  the  obsequious 
person  who  had  for  so  long  managed  his  affairs. 
"  My  brother  Gustav  will  arrange  all  that,"  he  said 
stiffly.  "  You  know  I  can  do  nothing  here.  He  is 
coming  this  afternoon." 

"Oh,  is  he.?"  said  the  lawyer  sceptically.  "Is 
he  indeed,  now.?  That  will  be  a  remarkable  instance 
of  brotherly  devotion.  1  am  truly  glad  to  hear 
that.  Good  afternoon,"  he  nodded  ;  and  went  out, 
leaving  Axel  in  a  fury. 

The  one  good  result  of  his  visit  was  that  some 
time  later  Axel  was  provided  with  writing  materials. 
He  immediately  fell  to  writing  letters  and  telegrams  ; 
urgent  letters  and  telegrams,  of  a  desperate  im- 
portance to  himself.  When  his  coffee  was  brought 
he  gave  them  to  the  warder,  and  begged  him  to  see 
that  they  were  despatched  at  once  ;  then  he  paced 
up  and  down  again,  relieved  at  least  by  feeling  that 
he  could  now  communicate  with  the  outer  world. 

"They  have  gone  ?  "  he  asked  anxiously,  next  time 
he  saw  the  warder.  "  Jawohl^'  was  the  reply. 
And  gone  they  had,  but  only  by  slow  stages,  to  the 
office  of  the  Examining  Judge  Schultz,  where  they 
lay  in  a  heap  waiting  till  he  should  have  leisure  and 
inclination  to  read  them,  and,  if  he  approved  of 
their  contents,  order  them  to  be  posted.  There 
they  lay  for  three  days,  and  most  of  them  were  not 
passed  after  all,  because  the  Examining  Judge  dis- 


406  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

liked  the  tone  of  the  assurances  in  them  that  the 
writer  was  innocent.  He  knew  that  trick  ;  every 
prisoner  invariably  protested  the  same  thing.  But 
these  protestations  were  unusually  strong.  They  were 
of  such  strength  that  they  actually  produced  in  his 
own  hardened  and  experienced  mind  a  passing  doubt 
— absurd  of  course,  and  not  for  one  moment  to  be 
considered — whether  the  Stralsund  authorities  might 
not  have  blundered.  It  was  a  dangerous  notion  to 
put  into  people's  heads,  that  the  Stralsund  authorities, 
of  whom  he  was  one,  could  blunder.  Blunders 
meant  a  reproof  from  headquarters  and  a  retarded 
career ;  their  possibility,  therefore,  was  not  to  be 
entertained  for  a  moment.  Even  should  they  have 
been  made,  it  must  not  get  about  that  they  had  been 
made.  He  accordingly  suppressed  nearly  all  the 
letters. 

Gustav  must  have  missed  the  second  train  as  well, 
for  when  the  sky  grew  rosy,  and  Axel  knew  that  the 
sun  was  setting,  he  was  still  alone. 

The  few  hours  he  had  thought  to  stay  in  that 
place  were  lengthening  out  into  days,  he  reflected. 
If  Gustav  did  not  come  soon,  what  should  he  do  ? 
Some  one  he  must  have  to  look  after  his  affairs,  to 
arrange  with  the  lawyer,  to  be  a  link  connecting  him 
with  outside.  And  who  but  his  brother  and  heir  ? 
Still,  he  would  certainly  come  soon,  and  Trudi  too. 
Poor  little  Trudi— he  was  afraid  she  would  be  terribly 
upset. 

But  the  hours  passed,  and  no  one  came. 

That  evening  he  was  given  a  lamp.  It  burnt 
badly  and  smelt  atrociously.  He  asked  if  the 
window  might  be  opened  a  little  wider.  The  re- 
quest had  to  be  made  in  writing,  said  the  warder, 
and    submitted    through    the    usual    channels   to   the 


XXXI  THE  BENEFACTRESS  407 

Public  Prosecutor,  without  whose  permission  no 
window  might  be  touched.  Axel  wrote  the  request, 
and  the  warder  took  it  away.  It  came  back  two 
days  later  with  an  intimation  scrawled  across  it  that 
if  the  prisoner  von  Lohm  were  not  satisfied  with 
his  cell  he  would  be  given  a  worse  one. 

The  night  came,  and  had  to  be  gone  through 
somehow.  Axel  sat  for  hours  on  the  side  of  his 
bed,  his  head  supported  in  his  hands,  struggling  with 
despair.  A  profound  gloom  was  settling  down  on 
him.  The  knowledge  that  he  had  done  nothing 
had  ceased  to  reassure  him.  The  lawyer  was  right 
when  he  said  that  it  was  easier  to  get  into  such  a 
place  than  to  get  out  again.  Klutz  had  denounced 
him,  to  save  himself;  of  that  he  had  not  a  doubt. 
And  Dellwig,  well  known  and  greatly  respected,  had 
supported  Klutz.  This  explained  Dellwig's  conduct 
lately  completely.  Axel's  courage  was  perilously 
near  giving  way  as  he  recognised  the  difficulty  he 
would  have  in  proving  that  he  was  innocent.  If  no 
one  helped  him  from  outside,  his  case  was  indeed 
desperate.  He  did  not  remember  ever  to  have 
turned  his  back  on  a  friend  in  distress  ;  how  was  it, 
then,  that  not  a  friend  was  to  be  found  to  come  to 
him  in  his  extremity?  Where  were  they  all,  those 
jovial  companions  who  shot  over  his  estate  with  him 
so  often,  driving  any  distance  for  the  pleasure  of 
killing  his  game  .f*  What  was  keeping  Gustav  back  ? 
Why  did  he  not  even  send  a  message  ?  How  was 
it  that  Manske,  who  professed  so  much  attachment 
to  his  house,  besides  such  stores  of  Christian  charity, 
did  not  make  an  effort  to  reach  him  ?  He  had 
never  asked  or  wanted  anything  of  any  one  in  his 
life ;  but  this  was  so  terrible,  his  need  was  so  ex- 
treme.    What  a  failure  his  whole  life  was.      He  had 


4o8  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

been  alone,  always.  During  all  the  years  when  other 
men  have  wives  and  children  he  had  been  working 
hard,  alone.  He  had  had  no  happy  days,  as  the  old 
Romans  would  have  said.  And  now  total  ruin  was 
upon  him.  Sitting  there  through  the  night,  he 
began  to  understand  the  despair  that  impels  unhappy 
beings  in  a  like  situation,  forsaken  of  God  and  men, 
to  make  wild  efforts  to  get  out  of  such  places,  con- 
scious that  they  avail  nothing,  but  at  least  bruising 
and  crushing  themselves  into  the  blessed  indifference 
of  exhaustion. 

The  hours  dragged  by,  each  one  a  lifetime,  each 
one  so  packed  with  opportunities  for  going  mad,  he 
thought,  as  he  counted  how  many  of  them  separated 
him  already  from  his  free,  honourable  past  life.  By 
the  time  morning  came,  added  to  his  other  torturing 
anxieties,  was  the  fear  lest  he  should  fall  ill  in  there 
before  any  steps  had  been  taken  for  his  release.  He 
sat  leaning  his  head  against  the  wall,  indifferent  to 
what  went  on  around  him,  hardly  listening  any  more 
for  Gustav's  footsteps.  He  had  ceased  to  expect 
him.  He  had  ceased  to  expect  any  one.  He  sat 
motionless,  suffering  bodily  now,  a  strange  feeling 
in  his  head,  his  thoughts  dwelling  dully  on  his 
physical  discomforts,  on  the  closeness  of  the  cell,  on 
the  horrible  nights.  He  made  a  great  effort  to  eat 
some  dinner,  but  could  not.  What  would  become 
of  him  if  he  could  neither  eat  nor  sleep  ^  On  what 
stores  of  energy  would  he  be  able  to  draw  when  the 
time  came  for  defending  himself.''  He  was  sitting 
by  the  table,  leaning  his  head  against  the  wall,  his 
eyes  closed,  when  the  prisoner -attendant  came  to 
take  away  his  dinner.  "  111  ?  "  inquired  the  young 
man  cheerfully.  Axel  did  not  move  or  answer.  It 
was  too  much  trouble  to  speak. 


XXXI  THE  BENEFACTRESS  409 

The  warder,  upon  the  attendant's  remarking 
that  No.  32  seemed  unwell,  examined  him  through 
the  peep-hole  in  the  door,  but  decided  that  he  was 
not  ill  yet ;  not  ill  enough,  that  is.  In  another  week 
he  would  be  ready  for  the  prison  doctor,  but  not  yet. 
These  things  must  take  their  course.  It  was  always 
the  same  course ;  he  had  been  a  warder  twenty 
years,  and  knew  almost  to  an  hour  the  date  on 
which,  after  the  arrest,  the  doctor  would  be  required. 

Axel  was  sitting  in  the  same  position  when,  about 
three  o'clock,  the  door  was  unlocked  again.  He  did 
not  move  or  open  his  eyes. 

"  Ihr  Frdulein  Brant  ist  hier,'"  said  the  warder. 

The  word  Braut,  betrothed,  sent  Axel's  thoughts 
back  across  the  years  to  Hildegard.  His  betrothed  ? 
Had  he  heard  the  mocking  words,  or  had  he  been 
dreaming  ?  He  turned  his  head  and  looked  vaguely 
towards  the  door.  All  the  sunlight  was  out  there 
in  the  wide  corridor,  and  in  it,  on  the  threshold, 
stood  Anna. 

What  had  she  meant  to  say.?  She  never  could 
remember.  It  had  been  something  deeply  apolo- 
getic, ashamed.  But  her  fears  and  her  shame  fell 
from  her  like  a  garment  when  she  saw  him.     "  Oh, 

poor  Axel — oh,  poor  Axel "  she  murmured  with 

a  quick  sob. 

He  tried  to  get  up  to  come  to  her.  In  an  instant 
she  was  at  his  side,  and,  stumbling,  he  fell  on  his 
knees,  holding  her  by  the  dress,  clinging  to  her  as  to 
his  salvation.  "  It  is  not  pity,  Anna .?  "  he  asked  in 
a  voice  sharp  with  an  intolerable  fear. 

And  Anna,  half  blinded  by  her  tears,  deliberately 
put  her  arms  round  his  neck,  relinquishing  by  that 
one  action  herself  and  her  future  entirely  to  him, 
hauling    down     for    ever    her    flag    of  independent 


4IO  THE  BENEFACTRESS        ch.  xxxi 

womanhood,  and  bending  down  her  face  to  that 
upturned  face  of  agonised  questioning  laid  her  lips 
on  his.  "  No,"  she  whispered,  and  she  kissed  him 
with  a  passionate  tenderness  between  the  words,  "  it 
is  only  love — only  love " 


CHAPTER   XXXII 

There  was  a  grave  beauty,  an  austerity  almost, 
about  this  betrothal  in  the  prison.  Here  was  no 
room  for  the  archnesses  and  coynesses  of  ordinary 
love-making.  All  that  was  not  simple  truth  fell 
away  from  them  both  like  tawdry  ornaments,  for 
which  there  was  no  use  in  that  sad  place.  Soul  to 
soul,  unseparated  by  even  the  flimsiest  veil  of  con- 
ventionality, of  custom ;  soul  to  soul,  clear-visioned, 
steadfast,  as  those  may  be  who  are  quietly  watching 
the  approach  of  death,  they  looked  into  each  other's 
eyes  and  knew  that  they  were  alone,  he  and  she, 
against  the  world.  To  cleave  to  one  another,  to 
stand  together,  he  and  she,  against  the  whole  world, 
— that  was  what  their  betrothal  meant.  Axel,  cut 
off  for  ever  from  his  kind  if  he  should  not  be  able 
to  clear  himself ;  Anna,  cutting  herself  off  for  ever  to 
follow  him.  Her  feet  had  found  the  right  path  at 
last.  Her  eyes  were  open.  As  two  friends  on 
the  eve  of  a  battle  in  which  both  must  fight  and 
whose  end  may  be  death,  or  as  two  friends  starting 
on  a  long  journey,  whose  end  too,  after  tortuous  ways 
of  suffering,  may  well  be  death,  they  quietly  made  their 
plans,  talked  over  what  was  best  to  be  done,  gravely 
encouraging  each  other,  always  with  the  light  of 
perfect  trustfulness  in  their  eyes.     How  strong  they 


412  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

felt  together  !  How  able  to  go  fearlessly  towards 
the  future,  to  meet  any  pain,  any  sorrow,  together ! 
The  warder  standing  by,  the  miserable  little  room, 
the  wretched  details  of  the  situation,  no  longer 
existed  for  either  of  them.  Nothing  could  harm 
them,  nothing  could  hurt  them  any  more,  if  only 
they  might  be  together.  They  were  safe  within  a 
circle  drawn  round  them  by  love — safe,  and  warm, 
and  blest.  So  long  as  he  had  her  and  she  him, 
though  they  saw  how  great  their  misery  would  be 
if  they  came  to  be  less  brave,  they  could  not  but 
believe  in  the  benevolence  of  the  future,  they  could 
not  but  have  hope.  If  he  were  sentenced,  she  said, 
what,  at  the  worst,  would  it  mean  ?  Two  years, 
three  years,  waiting,  and  then  together  for  the  rest 
of  their  life.  Was  not  that  worth  lookinsr  forward 
to  ?  Would  not  that  take  away  every  sting  ?  she 
asked,  her  hands  on  his  shoulders,  her  face  beautiful 
with  confidence  and  courage.  When  he  told  her 
that  she  ought  not  now  to  cast  in  her  lot  with  his, 
she  only  smiled,  and  laid  her  cheek  against  his  sleeve. 
All  her  childish  follies,  and  incertitudes,  and  false 
starts,  were  done  with  now.  Life  had  grown 
suddenly  simple.  It  was  to  be  a  cleaving  to  him 
till  death.  Yet  they  both  knew  that  when  that 
golden  hour  was  over,  and  she  must  go,  the  suffer- 
ing would  begin  again.  She  was  only  to  come  twice 
a  week  ;  and  the  days  between  would  be  days  of 
torture.  And  when  the  moment  had  come,  and 
they  had  said  good-bye  with  brave  eyes,  each  telling 
the  other  that  so  short  a  separation  was  nothing,  that 
they  did  not  mind  it,  that  it  would  be  over  before 
they  had  had  time  to  feel  it,  and  the  door  was  shut, 
and  he  was  left  behind,  she  went  out  to  find  misery 
again,  waiting  for  her  there  where  she   had  left  it, 


xxxrr  THE  BENEFACTRESS  413 

taking  entire  possession  of  her,  brooding  heavily, 
immovably  over  her,  a  desolation  of  misery  that 
threatened  by  its  dreadful  weight  to  break  her  heart. 

A  sense  of  physical  cold  crept  over  her  as  she 
drove  home  with  Letty — the  bodily  expression  of 
the  unutterable  forlornness  within.  Away  from  him, 
how  weak  she  was,  how  unable  to  be  brave.  Would 
Letty  understand  .''  Would  she  say  some  kind  word, 
some  little  word — something,  anything — that  might 
make  her  feel  less  terribly  alone  ?  W^ith  many 
pauses  and  falterings  she  told  her  the  story,  look- 
ing at  her  with  eyes  tortured  by  the  thought  of 
him  waiting  so  patiently  there  till  she  should  come 
again.  Letty  was  awestruck,  as  much  by  the  pro- 
found grief  of  Anna's  face  as  by  the  revelation. 
She  knew  of  course  that  Axel  had  been  arrested — 
did  any  one  at  Kleinwalde  talk  of  anything  else  all 
day  long  .'' — but  she  had  not  dreamt  of  this.  She 
could  find  nothing  to  say,  and  put  out  her  hand 
timidly  and  laid  it  on  Anna's.  "  I  am  so  cold,"  was 
all  Anna  said,  her  head  drooping ;  and  she  did  not 
speak  again. 

As  they  passed  between  his  fields,  by  his  open 
gate,  through  the  village  that  belonged,  all  of  it,  to 
him,  she  shut  her  eyes.  She  could  not  look  at  the 
happy  summer  fields,  at  the  placid  faces,  knowing 
him  where  he  was.  Not  the  poorest  of  his  servants, 
not  a  ragged  child  rolling  in  the  dust,  not  a  wretched, 
half-starved  dog  sunning  itself  in  a  doorway,  whose 
lot  was  not  blessed  compared  to  his.  The  hay- 
makers were  piling  up  his  hay  on  the  waggons. 
Girls  in  white  sun-bonnets,  with  bare  arms  and  legs, 
stood  on  the  top  of  the  loads  catching  the  fragrant 
stuff  as  the  men  tossed  it  up.  Their  figures  were 
sharply  outlined  against  the  serene  sky  ;  their  shouts 


414  THE  BENEFACTRESS  chap. 

and  laughter  floated  across  the  fields.  Freedom  to 
come  and  go  at  will  in  God's  liberal  sunlight — just 
that — how  precious  it  was,  how  unspeakably  precious 
it  was.  Of  all  God's  gifts,  surely  the  most  precious. 
And  how  ordinary,  how  universal.  Only  for  Axel 
there  was  none. 

When  they  reached  the  house,  the  hall  seemed  to 
be  full  of  people.  The  supper  bell  had  lately  rung, 
and  the  inmates,  talking  and  laughing,  were  going 
into  the  dining-room.  Dellwig,  his  hands  full  of 
papers,  not  having  found  Anna  at  home,  was  in  the 
act  of  making  elaborate  farewell  bows  to  the  assembled 
ladies.  After  the  two  silent  hours  of  suffering  that 
lay  between  herself  and  Axel,  how  strange  it  was,  this 
noisy  bustle  of  daily  life.  She  caught  fragments  of 
what  they  were  saying,  fragments  of  the  usual  prattle, 
the  same  nothings  that  they  said  every  day,  accom- 
panied by  the  same  vague  laughs.  How  strange  it 
was,  and  how  awful,  the  tremendousness  of  life,  the 
nearness  of  death,  the  absolute  relentlessness  of  suffer- 
ing, and  all  the  prattle. 

"  Um  Goltes  Willen  I  "  shrieked  Frau  von  Treu- 
mann,  when  she  caught  sight  of  this  white  image  of 
grief  set  suddenly  in  their  midst.  "  It  has  smashed 
up,  then,  your  bank  ? "  And  she  made  a  hasty 
movement  towards  the  hall  table,  on  which  lay  a 
letter  for  Anna  from  Karlchen,  containing,  as  she 
knew,  an  offer  of  marriage. 

Anna  turned  with  a  blind  sort  of  movement,  and 
stretched  out  her  hand  for  Letty,  drawing  her  to  her 
side,  instinctively  seeking  any  comfort,  any  support ; 
and  she  stood  a  moment  clinging  to  her,  gazing  at 
the  little  crowd  with  sombre,  unseeing  eyes. 

"  What  has  happened,  Anna  ^  "  asked  the  princess 
uneasily. 


xxxii  THE  BENEFACTRESS  415 

"  You  must  congratulate  me,"  said  Anna  slowly 
in  German,  her  head  held  very  high,  her  face  of  a 
deathly  whiteness. 

A  lightning  look  of  comprehension  flashed  into 
Dellwig's  eyes  ;  he  scarcely  needed  to  hear  the  words 
that  came  next. 

"  Herr  von  Lohm  and  I  were  betrothed  to-day," 
she  said.  Then  she  looked  round  at  them  with  a 
vague,  piteous  look,  and  put  her  hand  up  to  her 
throat.  "  We  shall  be  married — we  shall  be  married 
— when — when  it  pleases  God." 


CONCLUSION 

The  moral  of  this  story,  as  Manske,  wise  after  the 
event,  pointed  out  when  relating  those  parts  of  it  that 
he  knew  on  winter  evenings  to  a  dear  friend,  plainly 
is  that  all  females — die  Weiber — are  best  married. 
"  Their  aspirations,"  he  said,  "  may  be  high  enough 
to  do  credit  to  the  noblest  male  spirit ;  indeed,  our 
gracious  lady's  aspirations  were  nobility  itself.  But 
the  flesh  of  females  is  very  weak.  It  cannot  stand 
alone.  It  cannot  realise  the  aspirations  formed  by  its 
own  spirit.  It  requires  constant  guidance.  It  is  an 
excellent  material,  but  it  is  only  material  in  the  raw." 

"  What.^  "  cried  his  wife. 

"Peace,  woman.  I  say  it  is  only  material  in 
the  raw.  And  it  is  never  of  any  practical  use 
till  the  hand  of  the  master  has  moulded  it  into 
shape." 

"  Sehr  richtig,'"  agreed  the  friend  ;  v/ith  the  more 
heartiness  that  he  was  conscious  of  a  wife  at  home 
who  had  successfully  withstood  moulding  during  a 
married  life  of  twenty  years. 

"That,"  said  Manske,  "is  the  most  obvious 
moral.     But  there  is  yet  another." 

"  The  story  is  full  of  them,"  said  the  friend,  who 
had  had  them  all  pointed  out  to  him,  different  ones 
each  time,  during  those  evenings  of  howling  tempests 


THE  BENEFACTRESS  417 

and  indoor  peace  —  the  perfect  peace  of  pipes,  hot 
stoves,  and  Gluhwein. 

"  The  other,"  said  Manske,  "  is,  that  it  is  very 
sinful  for  little  girls  to  write  love-poetry  in  the  name 
of  their  aunts." 

"To  write  love-poetry  is  at  no  time  the  function 
of  little  girls,"  said  the  friend. 

"Such  conduct  cannot  be  too  strongly  censured," 
said  Manske,  "But  to  do  it  in  the  name  of  some 
one  else  is  not  only  not  mddchenhaft^  it  is  sinful." 

"  These  English  little  girls  appear  to  know  no 
shame,"  said  his  wife. 

"Truly  they  might  learn  much  from  our  own 
female  youth,"  said  the  friend. 

Letty's  poems  had  undoubtedly  been  the  indirect 
cause  of  the  fire,  of  Axel's  arrest,  and  of  Anna's 
marriage.  But  if  they  had  brought  about  Anna's 
happiness,  they  had  also  brought  about  Klutz's  ruin. 
For  Klutz,  shattered  in  nerves,  weak  of  will,  over- 
come by  the  state  of  his  conscience  and  the  possible 
terrors  of  the  next  world,  with  the  blood  of  three 
generations  of  pastors  in  his  veins,  every  drop  of 
which  cried  out  to  him  day  and  night  to  save  his  soul 
at  least,  whatever  became  of  his  body, — Klutz  had 
confessed.  He  was  only  twenty,  he  knew  himself  to 
be  really  harmless,  he  had  never  had  any  intentions 
worse  than  foolish,  and  here  he  was,  ruined.  The 
act  had  been  an  act  of  temporary  madness  ;  and  in- 
fluenced by  Dellwig,  he  had  saved  his  skin  afterwards 
as  best  he  could.  Now  there  was  the  price  to  pay, 
the  heavy  price,  so  tremendous  when  compared  to  the 
smallness  of  the  follies  that  had  led  him  on  step  by 
step.  His  bad  genius,  Dellwig,  went  free  ;  and  later 
on  lived  sufficiently  far  away  from  Kleinwalde  to  be 
greatly  respected  to  the  end  of  his  days.     Manske's 

2  E 


41 8  THE  BENEFACTRESS 

eyes  filled  with  tears  when  he  came  to  the  action  of 
Providence  in  this  matter — the  mysteriousness  of  it, 
the  utter  inscrutableness  of  it,  letting  the  morally 
responsible  go  unpunished,  and  allowing  the  poor 
young  vicar,  handicapped  from  his  very  entrance 
into  the  world  by  his  weakness  of  character,  to  be 
overtaken  on  the  threshold  of  life  by  so  terrific  a 
fate.  "Truly  the  ways  of  Providence  are  past 
finding  out,"  said  Manske^  sorrowfully  shaking  his 
head. 

"I  never  did  believe  in  Klutz,"  said  his  wife, 
thinking  of  her  apple  jelly. 

"  Woman,  kick  not  him  who  is  down,"  said  her 
husband,  turning  on  her  with  reproachful  sternness. 

"  Kick  !  "  echoed  his  wife,  tossing  her  head  at  this 
rebuke,  administered  in  the  presence  of  the  friend  ; 
"  I  am  not,  I  hope,  so  unwomanly  as  to  kick." 

"  It  is  a  figure  of  speech,"  mildly  explained  the 
friend. 

"  I  like  it  not,"  said  Frau  Manske  gloomily. 

*'  Peace,"  said  her  husband. 


THE    END 


Printed  by  R.  &  R.  Clark,  Limited,  Edinbm-gh. 


BY    THE    SAME    AUTHOR 

[5STH  Thousand.] 

Ordinary  Edition.     Extra  Crown  Svo.     6s. 
Illustrated  Edition.     White  Buckram.     Gilt  Edges. 
Jn  box.     Sj.  6d.  net. 

ELIZABETH  AND  HER  GERMAN 
GARDEN 

A  THENM  UAf.—"  The  fascinating  Elizabeth  sits  in  the  garden  she  has  made  and 
talks  about  everything  and  nothing — herself,  her  husband  (whom  she  persistently 
styles  the  '  Man  of  Wrath  '),  her  children,  her  visitors,  and,  above  all,  her  garden.  . 
A  keen  sense  of  humour  is  another  characteristic  of  this  gardening  lady,  and  her 
account  of  her  stolid  neighbours  is  really  delightful.  .  .  .  We  hope  that  EUzabeth  will 
.  .  .  write  more  rambling  and  delightful  books." 

TIMES. — "  A  very  bright  little  book — genial,  humorous,  perhaps  a  little  fantastic 
and  wayward  here  and  there,  but  full  of  bright  glimpses  of  nature  and  sprightly 
criticisms  of  life.  Elizabeth  is  the  English  wife  of  a  German  husband,  who  finds  and 
makes  for  herself  a  delightful  retreat  from  the  banalities  of  life  in  a  German  provincial 
town  by  occupying  and  beautifying  a  deserted  convent." 

GUARDIAN. — ".Elizabeth  tells  us  many  interesting  facts  about  plants  and  flowers 
grown  under  immense  difficulties.  She  herself,  too,  is  most  fascinating,  with  her 
strong  personality  and  unusual  tastes.  .  .  .  To  any  one  touched  with  the  strange 
fascination  that  nature  exercises  over  her  devotees  Elizabeth's  experiences  will  read 
like  a  romance." 

LITERATURE.— ^' ti.c\\VLrxn\n%hoo\i.  .  .  .  If  the  delightful  wilderness  which 
eventually  develops  into  a  garden  occupies  the  foreground,  there  is  still  room  for 
much  else — for  children,  husbands,  guests,  gardeners,  and  governesses,  all  of  which 
are  treated  in  a  very  entertaining  manner." 


[27TH  Thousand.] 

Ordinary  Edition.     Extra  Crown  8vo.     6s, 

Illustrated  Edition.      IVhite  Buckram.      Gilt  edges. 

In  box.     ?>s.  6d.  net. 

THE  SOLITARY  SUMMER 

BY  THE   AUTHOR   OF    "ELIZABETH    AND    HER   GERMAN   GARDEN" 

TIMES. — "  It  is  inspired  by  a  garden  and  verj'  happily  inspired.  The  best  praise 
we  can  give  it — and  it  is  really  very  high  praise — is  to  call  it  a  sequel  to  '  Elizabeth,' 
which  has  all  the  charm  of  its  predecessor  and  none  of  the  common  faults  of  a  sequel." 

WESTMINSTER  GAZETTE.— "FuW  of  good  things,  full  even  of  exquisite 
things,  is  the  little  volume." 

OUTLOOK. — "  No  higher  praise  can  be  bestowed  upon  the  book  than  to  say  that 
it  is  just  as  rich  in  all  that  goes  to  the  making  of  a  dainty,  unaffected,  treasurable 
piece  of  writing  as  was  its  predecessor." 

GLOBE. — "To  all  who  can  reflect,  and  have  a  sense  of  fun,  T/te  Solitary 
Summer  may  be  recommended  strongly.  It  is  one  of  the  most  thoroughly  enjoyable 
books  that  the  present  season  has  bestowed  on  us." 

SPE.4KER. — "There  is  much  of  wit,  wisdom,  comedy,  suggestiveness.  .  .  .We 
would  send  our  readers  to  the  book,  bid  them  read  it  not  once  nor  twice  ;  read  it  with 
holiday  leisurely  undistracted  minds  ;  read  it  out  of  doors." 

OBSER  VER. — "  The  new  book  is  simply  fascinating." 

MACMILLAN  AND  CO.,  Ltd.,  LONDON. 


THE  WORKS   OF 

JAMES    LANE    ALLEN. 

ACADEMY. — "  We  are  glad  to  see  that  the  fine  work  of  Mr.  James  Lane  Allen  in  fiction 
is  likely  to  he  better  known  in  this  country  than  hitherto." 

THE  INCREASING  PURPOSE.  llOtli  Thousand.  Crown  8vo.  Gilt 
top.     6s. 

"  Yet  I  doubt  not  tliro'  the  ages  one  increasing  purpose  runs, 
And  the  thoughts  of  men  are  widen'd  with  the  process  of  the  suns." 

Tennyson 

WESTMINSTER  GAZETTE.—"  Such  a  hook  as  this  is  a  rare  event,  and  as  refreshing 
as  it  is  rare.  This  hook  .  .  .  is  a  beautiful  one — beautiful  alike  in  tho^t,ght,  tone,  and 
language." 

LITERATUTiE. — "  We  may  safely  assert  that  it  will  achieve  a  large  success,  and  achieve 
it  on,  its  merits." 

THE  CHOIR  INVISIBLE.  223rd  Thousand.  Globo  8vo.  6s.  Also 
the  Edition  de  Luxe  with  Illustrations  by  Orson  Lowell.  Extra 
Crown  8vo.     7s.  6d.  net. 

ACADEMY. — "  A  book  to  read,  and  a  book  to  top  after  rending.  Mr.  Allen's  gifts  are 
many — a  style  pellucid  and  picturesque,  a  vivid  and  disciplined  power  of  eharacterisatiOTi, 
and  an  intimate  knowledge  of  a  striking  epoch  and  an  alluring  country.  '  T/ie  Choir 
Invisible'  is  a  fine  achievement." 

A  KENTUCKY  CARDINAL.     Globe  8vo.     3s.  6d. 

AFTERMATH.  Being  Part  II.  of  ^  Kentucky  Cardinal.  Globe  Svo. 
3s.  6d. 

A  KENTUCKY  CARDINAL,  AND  AFTERMATH.  Complete  in 
one  volume.  With  Headpieces,  Initials,  and  Illustrations  by  Hugh 
Thomson.     Crown  Svo.     6s. 

OUTLOOK. — ^'  His  work  has  purity,  delicacy,  and  unfailing  charm.  He  gives  you 
matter  for  laughter,  matter  for  tears,  and  matter  to  think  upon,  ivith  a  very  fine  hand." 

SUMMER  IN  ARCADY.     Globe  Svo.     3s.  6d. 

DAILY  TELEGIIAPII.—"  A/os^c/iarmiiif?.  .  .  .  In  this  little  sketch  Mr.  Allen's  writing 
of  nature  is  of  his  best.  The  whole  picture  is  seen  through  a  glorifying  haze  of  summer  heat 
and  mystery.  Overfiowing  with  life,  rich  in  perfume,  warm  and  irresistible.  The  scen^ 
glows  side  by  side  with  the  rising  love  in  the  two  yov/ng  hearts. " 

FLUTE  AND  VIOLIN  AND  OTHER  KENTUCKY  TALES  AND 
ROMANCES.     Crown  Svo.     6s. 

DAILY  NEWS. — "  The  stories  will  be  warmly  welcomed  in  their  new  form  bj/  all  lovers 
of  art  and  of  nature,  and  by  those  especially  who  already  know  and  appreciate  thi;  enchanted 
Kentucky  of  Mr.  Janies  Lane  Allen." 

THE  BLUE -GRASS  REGION  OF  KENTUCKY,  AND  OTHER 
KENTUCKY  ARTICLES.     Crown  Svo.     6s. 

HFECTATOli.—"  This  charming  hook.  .  .  .  Mr.  Allen  can  paint  word  landscapes  with 
astonishing  clearness  and  delicacy." 

MACMTLLAN  AND  CO.,  Ltd.,  LONDON. 


AUTUMN  SEASON,  1 90 1 
MACMILLAN  &  CO/S  ^ 
NEW  AND  NOTABLE  . 
SIX-SHILLING   NOVELS 


i  rudyard  kipling   . 
_'  f.  marion  crawford   . 

3  the  author  of  elizabeth 

and  her  german  garden 

4  s.  r.  crockett  . 

5  egerton  castle 
0  rosa  n.  carey  . 

7  una  i,.  silberrad 

8  stephi-:n  gwynn 

9  eric  parker 

10  MRS.  FAROUHARSON 

11  DR.  s.  \vi-:iR  mitchi-:li 

12  EVELYN  SHARP    . 

13  B.  K.  BENSON 

14  S.  MKRVIN  AND  H.  K.  WEBSTER 

15  ALFRED    HODDER 

16  W.  S.   DAVIS 


Kii)i 

A   Maid  of  Venice 

The  Benefactress 

The  Firebrand 

The  Secret   Orchard 

Herb  of  Grace 

Princess  Puck 

The   Old  Knowledge 

The  Sinner  and  the  Problem 

St.  Nazariits 

Circumstance 

The  Youngest  Girl  i)i  the  School 

A  Friend  with  the  Countersign 

Calumet  '  K ' 

Heirs  of  Yesterday 

God   Wills  It:    A    Tale   of  the 
First   Crusade 


MACMILLAN    AND    CO.,    Ltd.,    LONDON 


WINSTON  CHURCHILL  WINSTON  CHURCHILL 

400th  Thou- 
sand in  Eng- 
land and 
America    .    . 


Crown  8vo.     Gilt  top 
Price  6s. 

CDe  Crisis 

[190th  Thousand] 

Some  ipress  ©pinions 

DAILY  TELEGRAPH.—  "  The  Crbis  is  a  story  of 
the  American  Civil  War,  a  theme  as  inspiring  to 
the  American  writer  rf  genius  as  the  Engl'sh 
Civil  War  has  proved  to  some  of  our  best 
romancers.  But,  so  far  as  we  are  aware,  iheie 
has  hitherto  been  no  novel  on  that  subject  pro- 
duced in  America  to  e(]ual  either  the  ll'ocditock  of 
Sir  Walter  Scott  or  Whyte-Meh  ille's  Holmby 
Howe.  That  reproach  is  at  length  removed  by 
Mr.  Churchill,  and  The  Cris>s  will  bear  comparison 
with  either  of  these  justly  famous  books." 

L/7£/<^7't'R£.—"  As  well  executed  a  novel  as 
we  have  come  across  for  many  a  long  day." 

SPECTATOR. — "An  exceedingly  spirited,  inter- 
esting, and  right-minded  romance  of  the  Ci\il 
War." 

GUARDIAN.—  "  The  Crisis  is  a  remarkable  book. 
.  .  .   It  is  a  grand  book." 

PALL  MALL  G.'1Z£AT£.—"  A  singularly  fasci- 
nating and,  ill  many  respect.=,  an  important  and 
valuable  book." 

DAILY  CHRONICLE.— "WeU  as  Mr.  Churchill 
did  with  some  of  his  characters  in  Richard  Car-vel, 
he  has  done  still  better  in  this  s'ory  with  some 
of  their  descendants." 

ST.  J/IMES'  GAZETTE.—"  It  is  a  sound  book, 
well  put  together  and  well  wiitten." 

PILOT. — "A  worthy  pendant  to  his  brilliant 
romance  Richard  Cui-vd." 

ATUEN.'EUM. — "A  bright,  vividly  written  book, 
which  holds  the  reader's  interest." 

DAILY  NEWS.  —  "  We  congratulate  Mr. 
Churchill.  The  Crisis  is  a  warm,  inspiriting 
book." 


Crown  8vo.     Gilt  top 
Price  6s. 

RicDara  Cartel 

Some  iprc56  ©pinions 

GUA  RDIAN.—"  The  book  is  one  we  can  warmly 
recommend  to  readers  who  like  to  have  their 
historical  memories  freshened  by  rittion." 

LITERATURE.— "  Has  a  full  and  stirring  plot. 
.  .  .  A  piece  of  work  cieditable  both  to  his  industry 
and  his  imagination." 

THE  SPEAKER.—"  We  have  not  read  a  better 
book  for  many  a  day  than  Richard  Car-vel." 

DAILY  TELEGRAPH.— "FM  of  good  things. 
The  narraiive  excels  in  incidents,  interesting, 
vivid  and  picturesque.  .   .  ." 

Crown  8vo.     Price  6s. 

Cl)e  Cclebritp: 

Hn  €pi$odc 

[59th  Thousand] 

Some  ipress  ©pinions 

^7H£Af/EJ/A^.—"  Distinctly  good  reading.  It 
is  witty  and  devoid  of  offence  to  the  most  sensitive 
disposition.  .  .  .  Can  be  recommended  to  old  and 
young  alike." 

CHICAGO  TRIBUNE.— "  An  exceptionally 
pleasing  novel." 

NEIV  YORK  INDEPENDENT.— ••  Fresh,  dash- 
ing, and  entertaining  from  beginning  to  end." 


ROLF  BOLDREWOOD     ROLF  BOLDREWOOD 


Crown  8vo.     Gilt  top 
Price  6s. 

In  Baa  Contpanp 

and  otber  Stories 

By 

Rolf  Boldrewood 


Ipublisbcrs'  Ittotc 

A  collection  of  Australian  stories  and 
sketches.  The  longest,  which  gives  its 
title  to  the  volume,  turns  on  the  wicked- 
ness of  a  trades-unionist  agitator  among 
the  shearers  and  the  violent  accompani- 
ments of  an  Australian  strike.  Others 
describe  bushrangers,  rough-riding  con- 
tests, kangaroo  shoots,  lapsed  gentlefolk, 
and,  of  course,  a  drought. 

Some  press  ©pinions 

THE  OUTLOOK.—"  Very  ko(h1  reading." 

DyilLY  NElf^S.—"  It  is  the  best  work  this 
popular  author  has  done  for  some  lime." 

DAILY  GRAPHIC.—"  Both  the  quantity  and 
quality  of  the  stories  are  first  rate." 

DUNDEE  ADrER7ISER.—"  There  are  many 
charming  pictures  in  words  of  Australia  and  hei 
people,  free  from  conventional  phra'^eology,  to  be 
found  in  these  pages,  and  the  book  forms  a  fit 
companion  to  such  capital  volumes  as  Robbery 
Under  Arms  AnA  The  Miner's  Right,  \\K\ch  made 
Mr.  Boldrewood's  name." 

C0UR7  CIRCULAR.— "  \  breezy,  bracing, 
healthy  book." 


POPULAR     EDITION     OF      THE 
NOVELS  IN  UNIFORM  BINDING 

Crown  8vo. 

Price   ss.  6d.    each 

Robbery  Under  Arms 

The  Miner's  Right 

The  Squatter's  Dream 

A  Sydney=side  Saxon 

A  Colonial  Reformer 

Nevermore 

A  Modern  Buccaneer 

The  Sealskin  Cloak 

Plain  Living 

The  Crooked  Stick 

My  Run  Home 

Old  Melbourne  Memories 

Crown  8vo.     6s.   each 

Romance  of  Canvas  Town 
War  to  the  Knife 
Babes  in  the  Bush 

Globe  8vo.     2S. 
The  Sphin.x  of   Eaglehawk 


BERTHA    RUNKLE 

First  Amer- 
ican Edition 
10  0,000 
Copies     .    . 

Crown   8vo.      Gilt   top 
Price   6s. 

CDe  Belmet  of 
Raoarre 

By 

Bertha   Runkle 

Some  press  ©pinions 

THE  SPEAKER.—-'  Among  the  three 
or  four  really  good  novels  of  romantic 
adventure  that  have  been  published  this 
season." 

LITERARY  WORLD.—''  The  book 
will  be  the  pleasure  of  countless  readers 
this  summer." 

THE  QUEEN.- "The  story  moves 
with  unflagging  spirit." 

OXFORD  CHRONICLE.-"  A  cordial 
welcome  must  be  extended  to  a  novelist 
whose  brilliant  work  is  at  least  new  to 
readers  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  To 
have  produced  a  story  which  at  once  takes 
rank  with  the  best  work  of  Stanley  Wey- 
man,  Marion  Crawford,  Egerton  Castle, 
Henry  Seton  Merriman,  and  Anthony 
Hope,  is  a  literary  tour  de  force,  on  which 
we  may  well  congratulate  the  author." 

rH£  0  C/TLOO/ir.—"  A  taking  romance, 
briskly  written." 


G.    OVERTON 

Spectator. — 
''  One  of  the 
ablest  books 
that  has  come 
from  America  " 

Crown  8vo.     Gilt   top 
Price   6s. 

CDe  heritage  of 
Unrest 

By 

Gwendolen  Overton 

Some  ipress  ©pinions 

SPECTATOR.—"  By  far  Ihe  most 
striking  and  brilliant  novel  on  our  list  ihis 
week.  .  .  .  Whether  we  consider  scenic 
accessories,  incident  (sometimes,  as  the 
theme  necessitates,  of  the  most  terrible 
nature),  or  characterisation,  this  is  one  of 
the  ablest  books  that  has  come  to  us 
during  the  year  from  America." 

AT H EN ^UM.— "More  instinct  with 
human  interest  and  richer  in  variety  of 
type  than  most  things  we  can  remember  of 
late  years  which  can  be  assigned  to  the 
same  historical  category.  The  strongrelief 
of  genuine  humour  too,  as  in  the  quaint 
wooing  of  the  missionary  and  his  bride, 
contributes  to  the  humanity  of  the  book." 

DA  IL  Y  NE  WS. — '  •  The  book  moves  in 
the  free  air  of  the  open.  It  abounds  in 
stirring  situations,  penned  with  observa- 
tion and  insight,  often  with  power.  The 
story  enacted  in  this  setting  is  full  of 
interest." 


BEULAH  MARIE  DIX         ANNIE   N.    MEYER 


"A  fine  pic- 
t  u  1-  e  of 
Colonial 
America  "  . 


A  story 
of  the  great 
uprising 

in   1 38 1    .    . 


Crown  8vo.     Gilt  top  Crown  8vo.     Gilt  top 

Price  6s.  Price   6s. 


Che  making  of 
Christopher 

Ferrinciham 

By  Beiilah  Marie  Dix 

Some  iprcss  Opinions 

5T.  JAMES'S  GAZET-rE.—"  \  brave  talc  and 
stirring." 

PALL  MALL  GAZErTE.—"  \  most  excellent 
and  stirring  tale.  .  .  .  The  character-drawing  of 
Christopher  is  a  masterpiece  of  literary  workman- 
ship." 

DyilLY  GRAPHIC.-'-  An  admirable  book,  well 
constructed,  and  written  in  a  strain  of  bold 
realism." 

DAILY  EXPRESS.— "Miss  Dix  brings  action 
before  the  mind's  eye  most  vividly.  We  hear 
the  smacking  blows,  the  sibilant  curses,  the 
thuds  of  defeat ;  there  is  hearty  goodwill  in  the 
writing,  it  is  virile,  iinartected,  true." 

LITERATURE.—"  A  fine  picture  of  colonial 
America.  .  .  .  The  book  is  clever  and  conscien- 
tious." 

THE  SCOTSMAN.— "Xn  his  unmade  state, 
Christopher  Ferrinnham  is  a  delightful  person. 
.  .  .  The  book  is  thoroughly  good' reading  from 
the  lirst  page  to  the  last." 


Robert  ilnnps 
Poor  Priest 

By  Annie  Nathan  Meyer 

A  story  of  the  first  genuine  "  strike  " 
in  England,  1381,  and  of  the  great 
Uprising  in  England  under  John  IBall, 
when  the  peasants  appealed  to  the  boy 
king.  The  main  theme  of  the  book  is 
the  struggle  in  the  mind  of  Annys,  a 
pupil  of  Wyclif,  poor  priest,  orator,  and 
leader  of  the  people,  between  the  attrac- 
tion of  the  Church  and  the  claims  of  the 
people.  The  author  has  studied  the 
literature  of  the  time,  and  the  descrip- 
tion of  English  life  in  the  fourteenth 
century  abounds  with  detail.  The  cor- 
ruptions of  the  priesthood  are  severely 
emphasised. 

Some  ipress  Opinions 

THE  PILur.  -'■  Sol  only  a  chronicle  of  the 
great  uprising  of  the  fourteenth  century,  but  the 
spiritual  drama  of  a  man's  soul,  and  it  should 
li  ve  alike  as  an  historical  and  psychological  study." 

S/'^C/'^rOR.—"  Powerfully  written  through- 
out, it  has  some  excee  linglv  line  scenes." 

IFESTMI.VSTER  GAZETTE.— 'Oneofthe  truest 
and  most  artistic  achievements  in  the  realm  of 
romantic  history  that  we  have  had  for  many 
a  day  in  England." 

OUTLOCjK.— "The  tale  is  well  told.  Miss 
Meyer  displays  much  eloquence  and  ability  in  her 
narrative." 


MAURICE  HEWLETT     MAURICE  HEWLETT 

Fifty-third 
Thousand 


Crown  8vo.     Gilt  top 
Price  6s. 

RicDara 

yeaananap 

By 

Maurice    Hewlett 

Some  ipress  ©pinions 

Mr. pRKDERir  Harrison  \nTHE  FORtNIGH'TLY 
REVIEW  iox  ia.x\\\ary  : — "Such  historic  imagina- 
tion, such  glowing  colour,  such  crashing  speed, 
set  forth  in  such  pregnant  form  carry  me  away 
spell-bound.  .  .  .  Richard  Yea-and-Nay  is  a  fine 
and  original  romance." 

DAILY  TELEGRAPH.—"  The  story  carries  us 
along  as  though  throughout  we  were  galloping 
on  strong  horses.  There  is  a  rush  and  fervour 
about  it  all  which  sweeps  us  off  our  feet  till  the 
end  is  reached  and  the  tale  is  done.  It  is  very 
clever,  very  spirited." 

DAILY  NEWS. — "A  memorable  book,  over- 
long,  over-charged  with  scenes  of  violence,  yet  so 
informed  with  the  atmosphere  of  a  tumultuous 
time,  written  with  a  pen  so  vital  and  picturesque, 
that  it  is  the  reader's  loss  to  skip  a  page." 

DAILY  CHRONICLE.— "We  have  to  thank 
Mr.  Hewlett  for  a  most  beautiful  and  fascinating 
picture  of  a  glorious  time.  .  .  We  know  of  no 
other  writer  to  day  who  could  have  done  it." 


in     England 


and  America 

Crown  8vo.     Gilt  top 
Price  6s. 

CDe  Forest 
CoDcrs 

H  Romance 

Some  press  ©pinions 

SPECTATOR.— "  The  Forest  Lovers  is 
no  mere  literary  tour  de  force,  but  an  un- 
commonly attractive  romance,  the  charm 
of  which  is  greatly  enhanced  by  the 
author's  excellent  style." 

DA  IL  Y  TELEGRA  PH.—' '  Mr.Maurice 
Hewlett's  Forest  Lovers  stands  out  with 
conspicuous  success.  .  .  .  He  has  com- 
passed a  very  remarkable  achievement 
....  For  nearly  four  hundred  pages  he 
carries  us  along  with  him  with  unfailing 
resource  and  artistic  skill,  while  he  un- 
rolls for  us  the  course  of  thrilling  adven- 
tures, ending,  after  many  tribulations,  in 
that  ideal  happiness  towards  which  every 
romancer  ought  to  wend  his  tortuous 
way.  .  .  .  There  are  few  books  of  this 
season  which  achieve  their  aim  so  simply 
and  whole-heartedly  as  Mr.  Hewlett's 
ingenious  and  enthralling  romance." 

J9^ 


Crown  8vo.     Gilt   top 
Price  6s. 

In  m  Palace  of 
tDe  Kind 

H  £ODC  Storp  of  Old  inadrid 

[iiSth   Thousand] 

Some  press  Opintons 

7HE  TIMES. — "A  moving  drama  where  thrill- 
ing situations  crowd  fast  on  each  other." 

THE  WORLD.— " h  brilliant  achievement." 

DAILY  ORy^Pfl/C.—"  A  beautiful  story,  beauti- 
fully told." 

P.iLL  M.ILL  GAZETTE.— "\  powerful,  passion- 
ate story." 

SPECTATOR.— "  A  truly  thrilling  tale.  .  .  The 
passage  of  the  devoted  lovers  from  one  peril  to 
another  keeps  the  reader  agreeably  engrossed 
from  first  to  last." 

OUTLOOK. — "An  absorbing  narrative." 

GENTLEIf'OMAN. — "An  enthralling  romance." 

DAILY  NEWS. — "  A  dramatic,  even  sensational 
story,  of  the  Court  of  Philip  II.  of  Spain.  .  .  . 
Will  be  warmly  welcomed  by  Mr.  Crawford's 
many  admirers." 

MANCHESTER  GUARDIAX.—"  Mr.  Crawford's 
picture  of  the  Spanish  King  ...  is  one  of  the 
best  things  he  has  done." 


MARION    CRAWFORD     MARION    CRAWFORD 


A     NEW    UN/FORM    ISSUE     OF 

THE  NOVELS  IN  FORTNIGHTLY 

VOLUMES      FROM    DECEMBER, 

1900 

Crown  8vo. 
Price   3s.   6d.    each 

Mr.  Isaacs :  A  Tale  of  Modern  India 

Doctor  Claudius:   A  True  Story 

A  Roman  Singer 

Zoroaster 

A  Tale  of  a  Lonely  Parish 

Marzio's  Crucifix 

Paul  Patoff 

With  the  Immortals 

Oreifenstein 

Sant'  llario 

The  Cigarette=maker's  Romance 

Khaled :  A  Tale  of  Arabia 

The  Witch  of  Prague 

The  Three  Fates 

Don  Orsino 

The  Children  of  the  King 

Pietro  Ghisleri 

Marion  Darche:   A  Story  without 

Comment 
Katharine  Lauderdale 
The  Ralstons 
Casa  Braccio 
Adam  Johnstone's  Son 
Taquisara:  A  Novel 
A  Rose  of  Yesterday 


Via  Crucis :  A  Romance  of  the 
Second  Crusade.  75th  Thousand. 
Crown  Svo.     6s. 

Corleone.     Crown  Svo.     6s. 


EQERTON    CASTLE 


Crown  8vo.     Gilt  top 
Price  6s. 

marsDfieia  tU 

Obscroer  ana  iU 

DeatbDancc 

Some  ipress  ©pitiions 

ATHEN^UM.— ••This  remarkaWe 
collection  of  stories  should  appeal  to  all 
who  enjoy  good  narrative." 

THE  OUTLOOK.— ••WeW  invented, 
brilliantly  told." 

SCOTSMAN.—-  Cleverly  constructed 
and  brilliantly  told." 

ST.  JAMES'S  GAZETTE.— ••Not 
inferior  in  interest  to  the  best  French  art 
of  the  day. .  .  .  They  enthral  us  with  their 
vividness  and  give  us  a  thrill  each  one." 

DAILY  TELEGRAPH.— ■•Mr.  Eger- 
ton  Castle  is  always  an  admirable  teller 
of  stories,  and  the  point  of  view  from 
which  the  present  series  are  told  is 
highly  piquant  and  original." 

GENTLEWOMAN.—-  The  volume  is 
exceedingly  clever  and  must  be  read." 

MANCHESTER  GUARDIAN.— •'Mv. 
Castle's  book  can  hardly  disappoint  even 
a  public  which  he  has  lead  to  expect 
much  from  him." 


A.    and    E.   CASTLE 

Crown  8vo.     Gilt  top.     6s. 
2 1st  Thousand 

ZU  Batb  Comedp 

THE  AtHENAiUM.—"  K  very  brisk,  and  lively 
comedy  in  narrative.  .  .  .  '1  he  style  is  delight- 
fully fresh  and  buoyant." 

Cr.  8vo.     3S.  6d.      69th  Thousand 

Cbe  Pride 

of  Jennico 

Being  a  Memoir  of  Captain 
Basil  Jennico 

AtHENAiUM. — "  The  note  of  true  romance  is 
always  unmistakable,  and  it  is  a  pleasure  to 
recognise  it  in  this  delightfully  open-air  and 
vivacious  story." 

Cr.  8vo.     6s.     42  nd  Thousand 

yomQ  ilpril 

By  Egerton   Castle 

Eight  Full -page  Illiistrattons 

PUNCH . — "  Needs  no  otlier  pictures  than  those 

artistically  painted  in  words  by  the  deft  hand  of 

the   author,  who   is   a  brilliant  colourist  and  a 

master  of  romance." 

Third   Edition.      Cr.   8vo.     ^s.   6d. 

Conseauences 

A  Novel.     By  Egerton  Castle 

SATURDAY  REVIEW.—-  It  is  a  real  pleasure  to 
welcome  a  new  novelist  who  shows  both  promise 
and  performance.  .  .  .  Consequencus  is  dis- 
tinguished by  verve,  by  close  and  wide  observa- 
tion of  the  ways  and  cities  of  many  men.  .  ." 

Cr.  8vo.     ^s.  6d.      19th  Thousand 


With 


Cigbt  of  Scarmep 

By   Egerton  Castle 

DAILY  TELEGRAPH.— -  k  thrilling  tale,  teem- 
ing with  pictiires(|ue  descriptions,  and  bright, 
vivacious  dialogues." 

Third  Edition.      Cr.  8vo.      ^s.  6d. 

£a  Bella  ^  OtDers 

By  Egerton  Castlk 

SOOA'A/^/jV.— "One  of  the  most  notable  books 
of  the  year." 


JAMES  LANE   ALLEN   JAMES   LANE   ALLEN 


Crown  8vo.     Gilt  top 
Price  6s. 

CDe  Increasitid 
Purpose 


130,000   copies  have  been   sold  in  England 
and  America 


Some  press  ©pinions 

WESTMINSTER  GAZETTE.—"  Such  a  book  as 
this  is  a  rare  event,  and  as  refreshing  as  it  is  rare. 
This  book  ...  is  a  beautiful  one — beautiful  alike 
in  thought,  tone,  and  language." 

LITERATURE.—"  We  may  safely  assert  that  it 
will  achieve  a  large  success,  and  achieve  it  on  its 
merits." 

DAILY  CHRONICLE.—  "  We  like  this  book.  It 
stands  apart  from  the  ordinary  novel.  It  tells 
the  story  of  the  growth  of  a  soul.  ...  A  great 
charm  of  the  book  is  its  pictures  of  out-door  life 
on  a  Kentucky  farm.  .  .  .  Hut  the  greatest  charm 
of  all,  perhaps,  is  Mr.  Allen's  clear-cut,  simple, 
and  vigorous  style." 

SPECTATOR.— "  Written  with  all  the  delicacy 
and  distinction  which  have  already  won  him  so 
many  admirers." 

WORLD. — "  Lays  upon  the  reader  a  grip  from 
which  there  is  no  escape." 

DAILY  GRAPHIC— "The  character  of  David, 
the  first  figure  in  the  book,  is  finely  drawn.  .  .  . 
The  book  is  well  worth  reading." 

ACADEMY.— "FM  of  racial  w.irmth  and 
freshest  human  nature.  .  .  .  Life  is  intense, 
richly  coloured,  and  splendidly  aspirant  in  these 
pages  ;  yet  the  eternal  note  of  sadness  is  brought 


Fcap.  8vo.     Gilt  top. 
223rd  Thousand 


6s. 


CDe  Cboir  Inoisible 

ACADEMY.— " A  book  to  read  and  a  book  to 
keep  after  reading.  Mr.  Allen's  gifts  are  many 
— a  style  pellucid  and  picturesque,  a  vivid  and 
disciplined  power  of  characterization,  and  an 
intimate  knowledge  of  a  striking  epoch  and  an 
alluring  country.  The  Choir  Invisible  is  a  fine 
achievement." 

PALL  MALL  GAZETTE.— "  Mr.  Allen's  power 
of  character  drawing  invests  the  old,  old  story 
with  renewed  and  absorbing;  interest.  .  .  .  The 
fascination  of  the  story  lies  in  great  part  in  Mr. 
Allen's  graceful  and  vivid  style." 

Globe  8vo.     Price  3s.  6d.   each 

fl  Kcntuckp 
Carainal 

jIftermatD 

Being  Part  II.  of  A   Kentucky  Cardinal 

Summer  in  Jlrcaap 

A  Tale  of  Nature 

Crown  8vo.     Price  6s.  each 

^lute  ana  Violin 

And  other  Kentucky  Tales  and 
Romances 

Cbe  BlueGrass  Re= 
dion  of  Kentuckp 

And  other  Kentucky  Articles 

OUTLOOK. — "His  work  has  purity,  delicacy 
and  unfailing  charm.  He  gives  you  matter  for 
laughter,  matter  for  tears,  and  matter  to  think 
upon,  with  a  very  fine  hand." 

SPECTATOR.—"  The  volume  of  Kentucky  tales 
collected  under  the  title  of  fluie  and  f'iolin.  though 
issued  a  few  years  ago  in  America,  is  practically 
a  new  book  so  far  as  English  readers  are  con- 
cerned, and  as  such  desenes  the  attention  due 
to   whate\er  falls  from  the  pen  which  gave  us 

1  The  Choir  Invisible." 

I  PALL  MALL  GAZETTE.— "  J*\t.  Allen  has 
attained  to  an  enviable  position  ;  it  is  his  to  in- 
terpret his  native  country  to  the  world,  and  it  is 
not  easy  to  imagine  a  better  interpreter.     Those 

I  four  volumes  are  worthy  of  the  author  of 
The  Choir  Invisible." 


C.    M.    YONQE 


Crown  8vo.     Gilt  top 
Price  6s. 

modern  Broods 

By 

Charlotte  M.  Yonge 


Some  iPrcss  ©pinions 

DUNDEE  ADVERTISER.  —  '-li 
lorms  a  very  happy  example  of  the 
refined  and  tranquil  manner  of  Charlotte 
M.  Yonge,  and  breathes  the  gracious 
domesticity  that  usually  is  found  in  her 
fiction." 

^^ 

REVIEW  OF  THE  WEEK.— "  On 
her  own  ground  Miss  Yonge  is  still  bad 
to  beat." 

THE  OUTLOOK.— -A  book  which 
will  not  disappoint  Miss  Yonge's  public." 


J* 


C.    M.   YONGE 

UN/FORM   EDITION.     Crown  8vo. 

Price  3S.  6d.  each 

Armourer's  'Prentices 

Beechcroft  at  Rockstone 

Bye-words  |      Caged  Lion 

Chantry  House 

Chaplet  of  Pearls 

Clever  Woman  of  the  Family 

Daisy  Chain ;  or,  Aspirations 

Dove  in  the  Eagle's  Nest 

Dynevor  Terrace 

Grisly  Grisell        |      Heartsease 

Heir  of  Redclyffe 

Henrietta's  Wish 

Hopes  and  Fears 

Lady    Hester.     And   The    Danvers 

Papers 
Lances  of  Lynwood 
Little  Duke  I  Long  Vacation 

Love  and  Life       I  Magnum  Bonum 
Modern  Telemachus 
More  Bye=words 
My  Young  Alcides 
Nuttie's  Father 
Old  Woman's  Outlook  in  a  Hamp= 

shire  Village 
P's  and   Q's.      And   Little   Lucy's 

Wonderful  Globe 
Pilgrimage  of  the  Ben  Beriah 
Pillars  of  the  House.     Two  Vols. 
Prince  and  the  Page 
Release;      or,     Caroline's     French 

Kindred 
Reputed  Changeling 
Scenes  and  Characters 
Stray  Pearls  |      That  Stick 

Three  Brides 
The  Trial :  More  Links  of  the  Daisy 

Chain 
Two  Guardians 
Two  Penniless  Princesses 
Two  Sides  of  the  Shield 
Unknown  to  History 
Young  Stepmother 


ROSA    N.    CAREY 


Crown  8vo.,  gilt  top 
Price  6s. 

Rue  tuiti)  a 
Dirrerence 

By 

Rosa  N.  Carey 

[i2th  Thousand] 

Some  press  ©pinions 

7HE  P/IOr.— "Told  with  all  the  writer's 
accustomed  sweetness  and  simplicity." 

TRU'TH.—"  Ought  to  maintain  Miss  Carey's 
high  reputation." 

SCOTSMAN.—"  The  novel  is  characteristic  of 
its  author,  and  may  well  serve  to  add  many  to 
her  already  wide  circle  of  readers." 

I££DSA/£RCC//?K.— "A  charming  old-fashioned 
love-story,  or,  rather,  two  love-stories — told  in 
Miss  Carey's  most  delightful  manner." 

BROAD  ARROir.—"W'e  have  nothing  but 
praise  for  this  interesting,  natural,  and  refined 
novel." 

LITERARY  WORLD.— "  A  novel  of  an  old- 
fashioned  flavour,  but  none  the  less  pleasant 
because  of  this  quality." 

DUNDEE  ADIER7ISER.—"The  life  of  the 
exclusive  cathedral  town  is  artistically  depicted, 
and  the  sweet, wholesome,  high-toned  atmosphere 
which  Miss  Carey  invariably  creates  pervades 
the  entire  story." 


ROSA    N.    CAREY 

POPULAR     EDITION      OF      THE 
NOVELS  IN  UNIFORM  BINDING 

Crown  Svo. 

Blue  Cloth,  Gilt    Lettered 
Price  i^s.  6d.  each 

Sale  over  a  Quarter  of  a  Million  Copies 

Nellie's  Memories.     32nd  Thousand 
Wee  Wifie.     25th  Thousand 

Barbara  Heathcote's  Trial. 

20th  Thousand 

Robert  Ord's  Atonement. 

17th  Thousand 

Wooed  and  Married.    24th  Thousand 
Heriot's  Choice.     iSth  Thousand 
Queenie's  Whim.     iSth  Thousand 
Mary  St.  John.     i6th  Thousand 

Not  Like  Other  Girls. 

24th  Thousand 

For   Lilias.     14th  Thousand 
Uncle  Max.     20th  Thousand 
Only  the  Governess.    23rd  Thousand 
Lover  or  Friend?     15th  Thousand 
Basil  Lyndhurst.     15th  Thousand 

Sir  Godfrey's  Qrand=daughters. 

14th  Thousand 

The  Old,  Old  Story.     i6th  Thousand 

The  Mistress  of  Brae  Farm. 

1 6th  Thousand 

Mrs.  Romney  and  *'  But  Men  must 
Work."     loth  Thousand 


JOHN  BULL.—"  Miss  Rosa  Nouchette  Carey 
is  one  of  our  especial  favourites.  She  has  a  great 
gift  of  describing  pleasant  and  lovable  young 
ladies." 

LADY.  —  "  Miss  Carey's  Novels  are  always 
welcome ;  they  are  out  of  the  common  run,  im- 
maculately pure,  and  very  high  in  tone." 

LADY.  —  "Miss  Carey's  bright,  wholesome, 
domestic  stories." 


F.    MONTGOMERY 


F.    MONTGOMERY 

Crown  8vo.     Gilt  top.     6s. 

n^isunaerstood 

Diary  of  Dr.  IVILBF.RFORCE,  Bishop  of  Win. 
Chester. — "  Read  Miiunderstood,  very  touching  and 
truthful." 
I  VANITY  FAIR. — "This  volume  gives  us  what 
of  all  things  is  the  most  rare  to  find  in  contem- 
porary literature^a  true  picture  of  child-life." 

Crown  8vo.     Gilt  top.     6s. 


Crown   8vo.,  gilt  top 
Price  6s. 


By 

Florence 
Montgomery 

Some  iprcss  ©pinions 

DAILY  TELEGRAPH.— •'  Kn  in- 
fjenious  tale,  and  pleasing,  by  reason  of 
the  fresh  wholesomeness  of  the  characters 
and  atmosphere — a  trait  hard  to  discover 
in  many  contemporary  novels." 

TRUTH. — "The  author  of  Misunder- 
stood keeps  up  her  deservedly  high  repu- 
tation by  her  very  pretty  story  Prejudged." 

LITERARY  WORLD.— "The  story 
is  simple  and  charming." 

MANCHESTER  COURIER.  —  "A 
study  of  character  which  is  sincere  and 
convincing,  and  a  story  which  from  cover 
to  cover  is  well  written." 

THE  SPECTATOR.— -Miss  Mont- 
gomery's graceful  story." 

ST.  JAMES'S  GAZETTE.— •' Well 
told  and  amusing." 

SCOTSMAN.  — •■Worthy  of  the  repu- 
tation made  by  Misunderstood." 

THE  OUTLOOK.—"  She  sketches  her 
characters  in  both  prettily  and  wittily." 


Seafortl) 


WORLD. — "In  the  marvellous  world  of  the 
pathetic  conceptions  of  Uickens  there  is  nothing 
more  exquisitely  touching  than  the  loving,  love- 
seeking,  unloved  child,  Florence  Dombey.  We 
pay  Miss  Montgomery  the  highest  compliment 
within  our  reacli  when  we  say  that  in  Seaforth 
she  frequently  suggests  comparisons  with  what  is 
at  least  one  of  the  masterpieces  of  the  greatest 
master  of  tenderness  and  humour  which  nine- 
teenth-century fiction  has  known.  Seaforth  is 
a  novel  full  of  beauty,  feeling,  and  interest." 


Crown   8vo.     Gilt  top.     6s. 

Cbroujn  CogetDer 

I'ylNllY  FAIR. — "This  charming  story  cannot 
fail  to  please." 

WASHINGTON  DAILY  CHRONICLE.— "  A.  de- 
lightful story.  There  is  a  thread  of  gold  in  it 
upon  which  are  strung  many  lovely  sentiments." 

Crown  8vo.     Gilt  top.     6s. 

.Second  Edition 

Cransforitiea ;  or, 
CDree  Ulccks  in 
a  Cifetime 

Pott  8vo.     2s. 

Conp:  J\  Sketcl) 

3  voi-s.     Crown  8vo.      1 8s. 

Colonel  Rorton 


FRANCES  M.    PEARD         OWEN   JOHNSON 

A  story  of 
tlie  .Vnieri- 
c  a  n    Civil 

I  War        .      . 

i 
Crown  8vo.     Gilt  top       '         Crown  8vo.      Cloth 

Price  6s.  Price  6s. 

number  One  ana  Jlrroius  of  iDe 
number  Cu)0  flimigbtp 


Bv 


Bv 


Frances  Mary  Peard       Owen  Johnson 


Some  ipress  Opinions 

THE  OUTLOOK.--'  h.  comedy  of  a 
wilful  young  woman,  excellently  told." 

GLOBE.—"  Shows  that  Miss  Peard's 
accomplished  pen  has  lost  nothing  of  its 
former  charm." 

ACADEMY.—''  A  bright,  readable 
novel." 

DUNDEE  ADVERTISER.  — "The 
novel  is  clever,  epigrammatic,  and 
bright.  ' 

Crown  8vo.      6s. 

Donna  Cercsa 

By 

Frances    Marv    Peard 

DAILY  TELEGRAPH.  — "  \  bril- 
liantly-told story." 


A  novel  which  includes  in  the  story  three 
generations,  but  the  central  part  of  it  deals  with 
an  unfamiliar  aspect  of  the  American  Civil  War. 

ATHENjEUM. — "A  clever  study  of  American 
life  and  character  .  .  .  this  is  among  the  best  of 
recent  novels  by  Transatlantic  writers." 

OUTLOOK. — "A  strong  story  worked  out  with 

skill." 


Crown  8vo.      Cloth 


Price  6s. 


RenrpBourlana: 

Cl)e  passing  of  the  Caualkr 

By 

Albert  E.  Hancock 

The  dram.Ttic  incidents  of  this  story  are  all  new 
lo  fiction.  The  central  figure  is  a  young  \'irginian 
planter  ;  he  enlists  in  the  Confederate  arnn,  is  in 
Pickett's  charge  at  Gett\sburg,  and  at  the  sur- 
render of  Appomattox.  The  writt  r  emi  hasises  a 
fact  not  yet  suliiciently  lecognised  ;  that  the  late 
sectional  bitterness  was  due  not  so  much  to  the 
war  as  to  the  drastic  method  of  reconstruction. 


M.  CHOLMONDELEY      M.  CHOLMONDELEY 

"  Sir  Charles 
Danvers  is 
really  a  de- 
lightful book." 

— Daily   News 


Crown  8vo.     Cloth 
Price  6s. 

Diana  Cempest 

By 

Mary 
Cholmondeley 

Some  iprcss  ©pinions 

LADY. — "  One  of  the  brightest  novels 
of  modern  life  that  has  ever  been  written." 

J» 

A  THEN/EUM. — "Miss  Cholmondeley 
writes  with  a  brightness  which  is  in  itself 
delightful,  .  .  .  Let  everyone  who  can 
enjoy  an  excellent  novel,  full  of  humour, 
touched  with  real  pathos,  and  written 
with  finished  taste  and  skill,  read  Diatia 


Tempest." 


J» 


SATURDAY  REVIEW.— ••Aiema.rk- 
ably  clever  and  amusing  novel." 


Crown  8vo.     Cloth 
Price  6s. 

Sir  CDarks 
Dancers 

By 

M.   Cholmondeley 

Some  press  ©pinions 

SATURDA  Y  REVIEW.—"  Novels  so 
amusing,  so  brightly  written,  so  full  of 
simple  sense  and  witty  observation  as 
Sir  Charles  Danvers  are  not  found  every 
day.  It  is  a  charming  love  story,  lightened 
up  on  all  sides  by  the  humorous,  genial 
character  sketches." 

3 

DAILY  NEWS.— "Sir  Charles  Danvers 
is  really  a  delightful  book.  Sir  Charles 
is  one  of  the  most  fascinating,  one  of  the 
wittiest  figures  that  advance  to  greet  us 
from  the  pages  of  contemporary  fiction. 
We  met  him  with  keen  pleasure  and 
parted  from  him  with  keen  regret." 


RHODA   BROUQHTON     RHODA   BROUGHTON 


New  Novel 
by  the  Author 
o  f  Na  n  cy . 
7th  Thousand 

Crown  8vo.     Gilt   top 
Price  6s. 

Foes  in  £au) 

By 

Rhoda  Broughton 

[7th  Thousand] 

Some  press  Opinions 

DAILY  rfl/?O.V/CiA-.— "Nobody  ever  equalled 
Miss  Broughton  in  the  description  of  a  family  of 
young  people,  and  when  we  say  that  in  this  boi)k 
she  returns  almost  to  the  manner  that  made 
Nancy  a  delight,  we  begin  with  high  praise." 

GRAPHIC— "It  is  delightful  to  find  in  Miss 
Broughton's  Fees  in  Laiv  all  the  freshness  of 
touch  and  spirit  that  characterised  her  ilebut." 

BOOKMAN.— "  A  book  that  is  well  worthy  to 
stand  with  the  best  of  its  many  predecessors." 

PALL  MALL  GAZETTE.—"  Her  skill  to  write 
a  love  story  which  holds  the  reader's  attention 
from  Chapter  1.  to  '  Finis'  remains  unimpaired." 

THE  fVORLD.— "From  the  epigrammatical 
title  to  the  closing  words Foei  in  Laiu  is  singularly 
clever,  even  for  its  author." 

THE  OUTLOOK.—"  Vivid  and  acute." 

DAIL  Y  GRAPHIC— "The  really  delightful  thing 

j  about  Miss  Rhoda  Broughtsn  is  that  her  books 

never  grow  any  older.     Fois  in  Latu  recalls  our 

own  youth  to   us — ihe  thrill  of  excitement  with 

which  we  welcomed  a  new  novel  from  her  pen." 


"A     deeply 


interesting 


storv     of    hu- 
man  passions  " 

Crown  8vo.     Gilt   top. 
Price  6s, 

CDe  6attie  and  m 
Canaie 

SPECTATOR.— "The    book    is    ex- 
tremely  clever." 

UNIFORM     EDITION     OF    MISS 

BROUGHTON'S  NOVELS. 

Crown  Svo.     2S.  each 

Good  =  bye,  Sweetheart ! 

Cometh  up  as  a  Flower 

Joan 

Belinda 

Dr.  Cupid 

Not  Wisely  but  Too  Well 

Red  as  a  Rose  is  She 

Alas! 

Scylla  or  Charybdis  ? 

Mrs.   Bligh 

Second  Thoughts 

A  Beginner 

Dear  Faustina 

Nancy 


Twilight  Stories.    Post  8\  o.    2s.  6d. 


RUDYARD    KIPLING       RUDYARD    KIPLING 


UNIF  ORM  EDITION 

Extra  Crown  8t'o.     Scarlet  Cloth 
Gilt  Tops.     6s. 
33rd  Thousand 

Stalkp  S  Co. 

PALL  MALL  GAZErTE.—"  U  Stnlky  ^f  Co.  does 
not  become  as  classic  as  the  greatest  favourites  j 
among  Mr.  Kipling's  previous  volumes  of  stories, 
write  us  down  false  prophets.  He  has  never 
written  with  more  rapturously  swinging  zest,  or 
bubbled  over  with  more  rollicking  fun."  [ 

57th  Thousand 

ZU  Dap's  Ulork 

MORNING  post.—"  The  book  is  so  varied,  so 
full  of  colour  and  life  from  end  to  end,  that  fiw 
who  read  the  first  two  or  three  stories  will  lay  it 
down  till  they  have  read  the  last." 

48th  Thousand 

Plain  Calcs  Trom  m  M\% 

SArURDAY  REnEll'.—"MT.  Kipling  knows 
and  appreciates  the  English  in  India,  and  is  a 
born  story-teller  anil  a  man  of  humour  into  the 
bargain.  ...  It  would  be  bard  to  find  better 
reading." 

3gth  Thousand 

life's  handicap 

Being  Stories  of  Mine  Own  People. 
BLACK    AND    WHITE.— "  Life's  Handicap  con- 
tains much  of  the  best  work  hitherto  accomplished 
by  the  author,  and,  taken  as  a  whole,  is  a  com- 
plete advance  upon  its  predecessors." 

3r)th  Thousand 

manp  Inoetitions 

PALL  MALL  GAZETTE.— "The  completest 
book  that  Mr.  Kipling  has  yet  given  us  in  work- 
manship, the  weightiest  and  most  humane  in 
breadth  of  view.  ...  It  can  only  be  regarded  as 
a  fresh  landmark  in  the  progression  of  his 
genius.' 

41st  Thousand 

CDe  £ial)t  tl)at  Failed 

Re-written  and  considerably  enlarged. 

^Cy^D£;V;K.— "Whatever  else  be  true  of  Mr. 
Kipling,  it  is  the  first  truth  about  him  that  he  has 
power,  real  intrinsic  power.  .  .  .  Mr.  Kipling's 
work  has  innumerable  good  qualities." 


UNIFORM  EDITION.     6s.  each 
17th  Thousand 

Ulee  Ulillie  Ulitikie 

and  other  Stories. 
20th  Thousand 

Soldiers  Cbree 

and  other  Stories. 
GLOBE. — "Containing  some  of  the  best  of  his 
highly  vivid  work." 

55th  Thousand 

Cbe  Jungle  Book 

With  Illustrations  by  J.  L.  Kipling 
and  W.  H.  Drake. 

PL'JVCW.—"'.<^sop's  Fables  and  dear  old  Brer 
Fox  and  Co.,' observes  the  Baron  sagely,  '  may 
have  suggested  to  the  fanciful  genius  of  Kudyard 
Kipling  the  delightful  idea,  carried  out  in  the 
most  fascinating  style  of  The  Jungle  Book.' " 

38th  Thousand 

Cl)e  Second  Jungle  Book 

With  Illustrations  by  J.  Lockwood 
Kipling. 

DAILY  TELEGRAPH.— "The appear Anceoi  The 
Secotiit  Jungle  Bo.yk  is  a  literary  event  of  which  no 
one  will  mistake  the  importance.  Unlike  most 
sequels,  the  various  stories  comprised  in  the  new 
volume  are  at  least  equal  to  their  predecessors." 

27th  Thousand 

** Captains  Courageous'' 

A  Story  of  the  Grand  Banks.  Illus- 
trated by  I.  W.  Taber. 

ATHENj^UM. — "Never  in  English  prose  has 
the  sea  in  all  its  myriad  aspects,  with  all  its 
sounds  and  sights  and  odours,  been  reproduced 
with  such  subtle  skill  as  in  these  pages." 

14th  Thousand 

From  Sea  to  Sea 

Letters  of  Travel.     In  Two  Vols. 

DAILY  TELEGRAPH.— "  From  Sea  to  Sea  is 
delightful  reading  throughout.  'Good  things' 
sparkle  in  its  every  page,  and  inimitable  descrip- 
tive matter  abounds.  ...  A  charming  book." 

Cbe    naulaDka 

A  Story  of  West  and  East 


RUDYARD      KIPLING 


WOLCOTT      BALESTIER 


S0.8.01 


DATE  DUE 

CAYLORO 

PniNTEOIN  U.S.A. 

